Blake Lively and Taylor Swift messages can be included in legal case

Messages between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift can be handed over to Justin Baldoni as part of his ongoing high-profile legal battle with the actress, a judge has decided.

Communications between Lively and her friend Swift about the environment on the It Ends With Us film set are relevant to the case, US District Judge Lewis Liman ruled on Wednesday, according to Variety.

Lively's team had applied to prevent Baldoni obtaining the messages, arguing they were irrelevant.

She sued Baldoni and his studio in December, alleging she was sexually harassed on set and that he led a campaign to "destroy" her reputation. He counter-sued, but his defamation lawsuit was dismissed by a judge last week.

In May, Baldoni's lawyers tried to get hold of the the messages directly from Swift herself by sending subpoenas to the pop star and her legal team.

But the subpoenas were dropped after Swift's legal team objected that they amounted to an "unwarranted fishing expedition".

Lively then attempted to prevent Baldoni gaining access to the messages via the usual discovery process.

But the judge wrote on Wednesday: "Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively's harassment and retaliation claims."

In response to the judge's decision, a spokesperson for Lively told Billboard the actress had "produced far more documents in this case" than Baldoni. They added that Baldoni and his publicity team had been trying to "drag Taylor Swift" into the saga since last summer.

"We will continue to call out Baldoni's relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift's popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer [Studios] parties are facing," the spokesperson said.

But Judge Liman said Lively's claim that Baldoni was only involving Swift in the case for PR purposes "does not justify denying the Wayfarer parties relevant discovery".

A representative for Baldoni declined to comment on the decision. Swift's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.