Justin Baldoni’s legal team responds to Blake Lively’s attempt to have case dismissed

Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer is firing back at Blake Lively‘s attempt to cut herself out of the ongoing legal drama surrounding the film, “It Ends with Us.”

Bryan Freedman tells TMZ … “Ms. Lively’s recent motion to dismiss herself from the self-concocted disaster she initiated is one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our legal system.”

Freedman says “stringent rules are put into place to protect the innocent and allow individuals to rightfully defend themselves,” while noting “laws are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to fit their own personal agenda.”

Earlier today … TMZ broke the story that Blake filed her motion to dismiss, saying Baldoni violated the law by filing his own lawsuit for the purposes of revenge.

Blake says Baldoni filed his defamation suit against her, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, right after she filed her lawsuit against him. In her suit, Blake accused Justin of sexually harassing her, and launching a smear campaign during the filming of the flick. As you know, Baldoni was the movie’s director and Blake’s costar.

As we reported Wednesday … Reynolds was first to file a motion to be dismissed from Baldoni’s suit, claiming Justin labeled him a “predator.” But, Reynolds argued, it’s not defamation because he believes the statement to be true, and Justin would have to prove otherwise.

In his statement to TMZ, Freedman reiterated … “As we said yesterday in response to Mr. Reynolds’ same cowardly measures, we will continue to hold Ms. Lively accountable for her actions of pure malice which include falsely accusing my clients of harassment and retaliation.”

Freedman summed it up by saying Blake’s “fantastical claims will be swiftly debunked as discovery moves forward, easily disproved with actual, evidentiary proof.”