On Friday, January 17th, 2025, the US Supreme Court upheld as constitutional the law that would effectively ban TikTok if it doesn’t divest from Byte Dance, who operates the app before January 19th. That leads to the app ‘going dark’ on Saturday, January 18th, due to the law, and then surprising users by reinstating some service on January 19th. The Bill allows for a one-time 90-day extension to the Bill's implementation with some very specific carve outs. Let’s take a look at what those are.

On Thursday, January 16th, the latest in the saga of litigation stemming from the set of ‘It Ends With Us’ was filed in Federal Court in New York. This suit, which attorney Bryan Freedman had been stating would be filed, sues Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their PR representative Leslie Sloan and Sloan’s company.

The suit alleges essentially the opposite of Lively’s previously filed suit, that it was Lively who contrived a media smear campaign against Baldoni and her complaints of harassment on set was fabricated to use as leverage to ‘take over’ the movie and wrest control from Baldoni as director and Wayfarer as the studio.

Both Lively’s suit and Baldoni’s suit now have the same Southern District of New York Judge, and the first date is set in the Baldoni suit. Lively and Reynolds waived service, so their answers are due on March 2nd, 2025.

RESOURCES

Wendy Williams Sealed Documents - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puCNv09kjwc&t=0s

Wendy Williams Live Stream - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9F3L5fQ9U&t=0s

Supreme Court TikTok Hearing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Fkz-BCqjs&t=0s

Blake Lively’s Initial Complaint - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yfwMzSLaU&t=0s

In February 2022, I went over these documents with the Law Nerds before the Court sealed all of the filings and any future activity. Wells Fargo froze Wendy Williams’ accounts and was seeking a guardianship over her finances. Williams filed an emergency petition for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order to regain access to her accounts.

Wells Fargo claimed it froze Williams’ accounts due to concerns about undue influence and financial exploitation, citing advisement from Williams’ former financial advisor and other unnamed third parties. The court ordered Wells Fargo to show cause why an order should not be entered to unfreeze Williams’ accounts. Wells Fargo filed a guardianship petition and requested that the records be sealed to protect Williams’ privacy. The court granted Wells Fargo’s request to seal the records.

RESOURCES

February 11, 2022, Live Stream - https://youtube.com/live/Uf9F3L5fQ9U

February 18, 2022, Live Stream - https://youtube.com/live/ZqDs1-kqRJs

Wendy Williams Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbUyvZas7gIcjZ2a1PNdfUU-gm-H-qde

Diddy's lawyers filed a document that was later stricken from the docket and resubmitted in a more redacted version due to it containing information that characterized things watched on videos that are subject to a protective order. The government and the victim were displeased with the original filing. The defense argues that they complied with the court's order by filing a more redacted version but believe it's unfair and will result in an unfairly polluted jury pool. They also argue that their characterization of the evidence was appropriate and should not be sealed.

The defense's argument that the protective order is too broad is disagreed with, as the protective order is already in place and they should wait for it to change before filing things not under seal. A hearing will likely be held in February to determine if the protective order will be modified, including whether the defense will have digital and physical access to the videos in question. The trial is still expected to be in May, but dealing with digital experts is not a swift process, so it may be delayed.

Watch the full coverage: https://www.youtube.com/live/xOgCXktdUMg?t=1682s

RESOURCES

Previous Diddy Live Stream - https://youtube.com/live/RgYrgSJBYEA