Justin Baldoni just took a major hit in his $400 million defamation crusade against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and The New York Times. A judge has officially entered a final judgment tossing the cases — effectively closing the door on Baldoni’s high-stakes legal campaign, at least for now. The “It Ends With Us” actor and director had been given a chance to fix his complaint after it was dismissed back in June but missed the deadline to refile. On October 17, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman warned all sides that he’d finalize the case. Lively was the only one who responded, asking the court to dismiss it for good — and to keep her request for legal fees alive. The judge agreed. Baldoni can still appeal once that fee issue is settled. Baldoni’s massive lawsuit stemmed from a New York Times exposé detailing Lively’s sexual harassment accusations against him on the film set — claims he has repeatedly denied. After Lively came forward, Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios, hit back with defamation suits against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane. But now that case is toast, leaving him to deal with Lively’s ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation suit instead. Lively’s legal team isn’t pulling punches — they’re demanding reimbursement for legal fees and accusing Baldoni’s camp of hiding evidence, using encrypted apps like Signal, and even auto-deleting messages to cover their tracks. They claim he and his PR team engineered a digital smear campaign to damage Lively’s reputation.