Laura Salafia for BI
A publicist who previously represented Justin Baldoni says one of her former employees orchestrated a smear campaign against Blake Lively without the public relations firm's knowledge — and then stole Baldoni and other celebrities as clients.
In a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court Tuesday, Stephanie Jones said the ex-employee, Jennifer Abel, ran a secret operation with Melissa Nathan, a communications professional with her own firm.
The lawsuit alleges that the goal was to "destroy" Lively, Baldoni's co-star in "It Ends With Us," to cover up Baldoni's own misconduct on set.
"Their plan was covert, deliberately concealed from Jones, and went far beyond the legitimate scope of Abel's employment," Tuesday's lawsuit says.
Abel and Nathan used the same tactics to wreck Jones's own reputation in order to siphon clients from her public relations company, Jonesworks, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit from Jones — a powerful Hollywood publicist who has represented Jeff Bezos, Tom Brady, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson — is the second legal salvo against Baldoni, Abel, and Nathan this past week.
On Friday, Lively filed a complaint against the same group with the California Civil Rights Department, a possible precursor to a lawsuit.
Lively alleges in the complaint that Baldoni — who also directed "It Ends With Us" — created a hostile workplace by frequently talking about pornography, adding sexually explicit scenes between their characters into the script, pressuring her to lose weight, and walking into her trailer unannounced while she was undressed and breastfeeding, among other offenses.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldini, Abel, Nathan, and their companies, previously called Lively's allegations "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious." Freedman didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment Tuesday.
Lively's complaint — wielding numerous text messages and emails her lawyers obtained — also alleged Baldoni worked with Abel and Nathan on a sophisticated public relations campaign through manipulated social media activity and stories published in tabloids.
"You know we can bury anyone," Nathan wrote to Abel in a February text message included in Lively's complaint as they discussed how to propose the communications strategy to Baldoni.
Lively's complaint alleges the campaign on behalf of Baldoni unfolded in secret alongside the public relations campaign for the movie, which was released in theaters in August and grossed over $350 million worldwide.
Jones said in her lawsuit she fired Abel in August after she had "stolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents" as well as client information. Abel also tried to poach employees for a competing public relations firm, RWA Communications, the lawsuit alleges.
Nathan didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment Tuesday.
In an email Tuesday, Abel provided a different account of how she left Jonesworks. She sent BI an email and text messages showing she submitted her resignation in July with plans to start her own public relations firm.
Jones's attorney Kristin Tahler said she filed the lawsuit "to stop defendants' continuing misconduct and for Steph to recover the reputation."
"For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively," Tahler, an attorney at Quinn, Emmanuel, said in a statement Tuesday.
Lively's complaint doesn't indicate how her lawyers obtained the purported campaign plan or the texts between Abel and Nathan.
Jones's lawsuit offers a possible explanation: It says Abel's company-issued phone from Jonesworks was forensically preserved and examined after Jonesworks received a subpoena. On the phone, "Abel and Nathan's covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white," Jones alleges.
"Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan's duplicity from these records, including that Abel was actively encouraging other Jonesworks clients and employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still employed there," Jones's lawsuit alleges.
On her way out the door from Jonesworks, Abel tried to turn Jones's clients against her so she and Nathan could steal them for her own firms, Jones's lawsuit says.
Jones's lawsuit alleges that, as part of a smear campaign, the two spoke with a reporter at Business Insider, which published an article in August about Jones and the workplace culture at Jonesworks.
While Abel waged an intense publicity campaign on Baldoni's behalf, text messages show she held him in "extremely low regard," Jones's lawsuit alleges.
"He may fire us because even if we put together an amazing campaign, it's not going to change the fact that he's so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man," Abel wrote in one text message included in the lawsuit. "there's no chemistry with him and Blake."
