Taylor Swift will not be deposed in Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively case, judge rules

Taylor Swift attends the 67th GRAMMY Awards on February 02, in Los Angeles. (Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The judge overseeing Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s case has denied a request from Baldoni’s legal team for an extension to depose Taylor Swift, according to a ruling, obtained by CNN.

Baldoni’s legal team had requested an extension to the end of October, in order to be able to depose Swift.

“The only justification they have provided for the extension is their assertion that Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from appearing for a deposition prior to October 20, 2025,” Judge Lewis Liman wrote in his ruling on Friday evening, regarding the Baldoni parties.

In his ruling, Judge Liman indicated that Baldoni’s legal team waited until the eleventh hour to request an extension to depose Swift.

“Discovery has been ongoing in this case for approximately six months,” the judge wrote. “They have offered no evidence that they have served a renewed subpoena on Swift… Having failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence, the requested extension is denied.”

CNN has reached out to Baldoni and Lively’s representatives for comment on the judge’s ruling.

On Thursday, Baldoni’s attorneys said in a court filing that Swift had agreed to be deposed in the ongoing civil litigation between “It Ends With Us” co-stars Lively and Baldoni. But Swift’s attorneys disputed that she ever agreed to sit for a deposition.

In a letter to the court from Baldoni’s legal team, they wrote that Swift has agreed to be deposed in the case but was unable to do so prior to October 20, due to prior professional commitments. (Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” is set to be released on October 3.)

But in a letter to the court in response, dated earlier on Friday and obtained by CNN, an attorney for Swift said she had not agreed to be deposed and would only do so if required by the court.

“Since the inception of this matter we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action,” an attorney for Swift wrote.

“Further, my client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes,” Swift’s filing states. “We take no role in those disputes.”

CNN has reached out to a representative for Swift for further comment.

In a separate court document, also dated Friday and obtained by CNN, Lively’s attorneys suggested Baldoni’s legal team was seeking media attention for the case by referencing Swift.

“The Wayfarer Defendants have repeatedly sought to bring Ms. Swift into this litigation to fuel their relentless media strategy. In this latest effort, the Wayfarer Defendants assert—though, notably, without evidence—that Ms. Swift has supposedly ‘agreed’ to sit for a deposition sometime between October 20-25,” the filing from Lively’s legal team states. “The Wayfarer Defendants do not appear to have contacted Ms. Swift’s counsel regarding a date or location about the deposition until earlier this week. In this respect, the Wayfarer Defendants’ lack of diligence, and disrespect for Ms. Swift’s privacy and schedule, is astounding.”

While Baldoni’s suit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds was dismissed, Lively is still pursuing her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation against Baldoni.

Swift – a longtime friend of Lively’s – was first mentioned in connection to the dispute when text exchanges were revealed to include the name “Taylor” as part of Baldoni’s since-dismissed countersuit.

One of the text messages appeared to show an exchange between Baldoni and Lively about the script for a scene in “It Ends With Us”: “I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” Baldoni wrote with a wink emoji. “You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together.”

Swift received a subpoena in the case in May that was subsequently withdrawn.

“Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see ‘It Ends With Us’ until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024,” a spokesperson for Swift said at the time.

“The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.’ Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,” the spokesperson added.

Trial in the case is set for next spring in federal court in New York.

By Elizabeth Wagmeister, Dan Heching, CNN