Stephanie Jones, who was Justin Baldoni's publicist, has hit back at the actor's recent defamation accusations by claiming she never leaked confidential information to Blake Lively and that the damaging text messages were lawfully obtained via a subpoena.

Jones claimed in court papers filed Thursday in New York that she complied with the law when turning over the text messages that are now the focus of Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios. Jones said there were five text messages, which were obtained as part of a broader investigation on a work phone belonging to her former business partner, Jennifer Abel. The phone was handed over in response to a subpoena from Lively's attorneys.

Those texts — several cited awaiting publication in a December piece by The New York Times — are part of the sexual harassment and defamation lawsuit Lively filed against Baldoni. The first one by publicist Melissa Nathan reads, "We can bury anyone."

Jones alleges that Baldoni and Abel breached their contracts with her company, Jonesworks PR, because they were still under contract with her — and because the three reportedly conspired with Nathan to start a smear campaign against Lively and ruin her business. Last month, Baldoni sued Jones, claiming she selectively leaked texts that made it look like he had hurt Lively, while she claimed her filings came ahead of his.

But Jones argues against this, claiming the texts were not released until forced to do so by a court and called Baldoni's account "lies."

"Wayfarer and Ms. Abel's distraction games in the press, and their legal filings attacking Ms. Jones and falsely accusing her of leaking are a desperate diversion from the reality that they have no answer for their blatant misconduct — and have yet to produce a shred of evidence disproving Ms. Jones' claims," her attorney Maaren Shah said in a statement to Daily Mail.

Jones also alleged that Wayfarer Studios had withheld payment to her firm, stating, "They've planted falsehoods in the press to tarnish Ms. Jones's business, stole confidential documents and clients, and refused to pay Jonesworks what was fairly owed. Those are facts, and smoke and mirrors PR campaigns can't change them."

Legal Teams Play Blame Game Over Fallout From Film Production

This legal feud gained steam in recent months as additional information about the production of "It Ends With Us" surfaced. The film is based on the Colleen Hoover novel and stars Lively as a florist and Baldoni as a hot but abusive neurosurgeon. Baldoni also directed the film.

Lively's lawsuit, filed in December, also alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her by getting close to her face, smelling her neck, and then commenting on how she smelled during a scene. Baldoni has denied the allegations, and his attorney released a clip that they claim contradicts her harassment claim, saying the audio was recorded despite previous reports that microphones were turned off, saying it was just a conversation about Lively's spray tan.

In an earlier statement, Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, said, "it is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held."

Freedman said Jones removed the phone from her business partner and revealed its contents to Lively's publicist Leslie Sloane just days after Jones was fired "for cause" by Wayfarer.

Kristin Tahler, a partner at Quinn Emanuel and one of Jones's attorneys, rejected Baldoni's accusations, saying Jones's case is backed by hard evidence. "That suit clearly shows that Jen Abel conspired with Melissa Nathan and others to steal reams of confidential documents, clients and staff and eventually attempt to destroy the business that Ms. Jones spent decades building," Tahler said.

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Blake Lively