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Justin Baldoni's legal team have been sanctioned by a federal judge for filing a lawsuit that was factually baseless and the media are not covering it. We need to talk about how the PR campaign never ended. It's still going on. On Friday, Judge Lyman granted sanctions against the law firms representing Justin Baldoni. If you remember, he's being sued for sexual harassment and launching a retaliatory smear campaign. In response, Baldoni filed his own four hundred million dollar countersuit, alleging a conspiratorial plot by Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, 
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her publicist Leslie Sloan, and his former publicist Stephanie Jones to defame and extort him. Now, the judge threw out his entire lawsuit back in June, but this week he ruled that Baldoni's lawsuit was so legally frivolous and factually baseless as to violate Rule 11 should never have been filed, calling out that Baldoni's team intentionally loaded their lawsuit with additional plaintiffs that had no business being there, with the judge saying the Wayfarer parties have not identified even an arguable basis in law or fact 
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for any Wayfarer party other than Baldoni or Wayfarer to assert these claims. A claim by a person that a defendant has committed a tort is not to be taken lightly. It can carry reputational consequences. The judge specifically stating what we've all been saying for over a year the Baldoni's lawsuit never stood a chance in court. It was filed entirely for PR, loaded with over exaggerated claims and a fake Story that they couldn't back up with any facts, all with a single purpose to generate damaging headlines 
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they knew would harm lively and Reynolds reputations. As a result, the judge granted lively and Reynolds request for sanctions, issuing a public reprimand against both of the law firms that brought the lawsuit on behalf of Baldoni. And while that might not seem like much, it's a permanent black Mark on the reputations of both line of Fredman and Meister Silgan. Fine, that could have an impact not just in this case, but in any of their future litigation, and could be used to show that they have a history of shady behavior and misconduct. Now, 
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you would think that a federal judge ruling that Baldoni filed a fatally flawed and baseless lawsuit as a PR stunt would generate some headlines, but as of yet, not a single media outlet is covering this. Instead, the headlines are talking about Baldoni's massive legal wins this past week. And what were those legal wins? Well, first they were granted a one week extension, but they had to ask for because, and I'm deadly serious, Blake Lively's legal team have so much evidence and so many witnesses that Baldoni's team can't be ready in time. 
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His other big win last week was that fully half of his countersuit against Stephanie Jones was ripped up, thrown in the trash, and dismissed with prejudice, meaning he cannot revive those claims. After a year of bragging how Strong. His case is only two actionable claims are heading to court against Stephanie Jones, not Blake Lively. Not that you would get that from reading the headlines. So why are these obvious losses being touted and spun as wins for Baldoni? that's because the authors are Tatiana Siegel and Elizabeth Rosner, 
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journalists that you'll remember, Baldoni's team were actively planting stories with. And we know that because we've seen the text messages of them doing exactly that. So it's not really a surprise to see them spinning. Baldoni getting yet more claims tossed out of court and his team begging the court for more time because of the volume of evidence that Lively's team are potentially going to bring to trial. Are somehow actually big wins for Justin, while ignoring the reality that his legal team got chewed out by a federal judge for filing a frivolous lawsuit 
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as a PR stunt. Which should be a concern to all of us, regardless of how you feel about Blake Lively or Justin Baldoni. Because what we are watching in real time and has now been confirmed by a federal judge, is a powerful man using his resources to manipulate the reality around his own alleged misconduct, filing baseless litigation to the court, knowing it will get thrown out, but not before journalists report it as fact. All to deliberately misinform public opinion about an active sexual harassment case and to discredit and destroy the women accusing him. 
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Women whose Careers, reputations, and livelihoods have been systematically targeted now for anything they did, but simply for having had a negative experience with Justin Baldoni and then choosing to honestly speak about it. And the dangerous part is it's working. And if it's working here, then it's working elsewhere. Most victims of this kind of coordinated reputational destruction have none of the resources to fight back. No team of lawyers, no public platform, no A list husband willing to fight by your side. 
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Which is exactly what predatory men like Justin Baldoni are counting on, hoping that you'll pay attention to who has the headlines and not who has the receipts.