'Internet was doing the work for us': Justin Baldoni's publicist allegedly breaks her silence on Blake Lively lawsuit

A day after Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni, her co-star and director of It Ends with Us, for sexual harassment and tarnishing her public reputation by driving a smear campaign, his publicist Jennifer Abel has allegedly broken her silence on the matter.

Jennifer Abel's text messages to crisis management expert Melissa Nathan were revealed as part of Blake Lively's lawsuit against Justin Baldoni. The revealed messages showed Abel, Nathan, and Baldoni discussing a social media campaign targeted at Blake Lively, with Abel emphasising at one point that she has 'reckless' thoughts of wanting to plant pieces about how 'horrible' the Gossip Girl alum is to work with.

After Abel's messages to Baldoni and others involved in allegedly driving a social media campaign against Blake went viral, the PR strategist has reportedly shared her side of the story on a PR and Facebook marketing group, defending her client of five years.

Justin Baldoni's publicist breaks her silence on Blake Lively's lawsuit

In a lengthy note, Jennifer Abel claimed that she was never subpoenaed regarding the lawsuit and that she only learned her text messages were involved in Lively's 10-claim complaint after The New York Times contacted her with receipts. While she did not deny that the now-viral screenshots of messages were indeed exchanged among her, Baldoni and his crisis management team, she claimed that there was 'no 'smear' implemented'.

She wrote, "No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it's our job to be ready for the scenarios. We didn't implement anything because the internet did the work for us."

Further, Abel added that they contemplated if they needed certain things, such as monitoring flagged social media accounts, to stay on top of the narrative so they could act quickly. She added that they rejoiced and joked about the fact that fans were recognising their client's hard work 'without us having to do anything'. "As the texts show, we sophomorically revelled and again, joked, privately to each other about the internet's feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult throughout the campaign."

Abel accuses Lively's team of planting 'horrible stories' about Baldoni

Abel said that she was notified at the start of the campaign that the 'opposing team had been planting horrible stories about my client as a "fail-safe"' if he did not comply with the demands set forth. This was the reason they brought a crisis team on board, she added. "My sole job was to put together interviews, screening opportunities, and speaking opportunities for my client in support of the film, a standard scope of work. I did my job," she mentioned.

'I made a choice to stand by my client'

Jennifer Abel said that she chose to stand by her client of five years after 'reviewing the evidence, facts, hard proof that countered every single thing that was being claimed and demanded at the start of the production'.

"Is my client perfect? No. He says he's not perfect so constantly to the point I tell him he needs to be less self-deprecating because it could be taken the wrong way," she added.

Talking about Blake's feelings, she noted, "It's not my position to say or speculate she was feeling in these moments that she claims, and I would never slam a woman for speaking her truth.

"But at the end of the day, if it's not the truth and there is evidence that proves otherwise, then as representative I have to do what I feel is right as well," she culminated.

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