Justin Baldoni’s Ex-Publicist Sues Over Alleged Smear Campaign

Justin Baldoni’s ex-publicist wants it known she was not part of the alleged plot to smear Blake Lively — and, in fact, she’s now suing the women Blake accused … claiming they tried to destroy her reputation, too.

Here’s the deal … Stephanie Jones is a big deal celeb publicist, who’s repped folks like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Venus Williams and Baldoni … up until this year, anyway. In the lawsuit she just filed, Jones says her ex-employee Jennifer Abel was assigned to handle Baldoni’s publicity, and it was Abel’s decision to hire Melissa Nathan, a crisis PR specialist, when the “It Ends With Us” feud was starting to erupt.

Remember, as TMZ first reported, Jennifer and Melissa are the 2 publicists Blake is accusing of launching the smear campaign.

Now, in the new docs obtained by TMZ, Stephanie says Jennifer and Melissa’s real goal was, “tearing down Jones’ reputation to take her clients and enrich themselves upon Abel’s planned departure from” Jones’ PR firm.

Her lawsuit includes text messages between the women … one of which, shows Melissa telling Jennifer, “I know. And once you are gone — we will be on accounts together and make really good money and be happy.”

There are others discussing Jennifer leaving Jones’ firm and stealing Baldoni as a client.

In the suit, Stephanie stresses her ex-employee, Jennifer, didn’t even like Baldoni. One text she sent said, “I can’t stand him. He’s so pompous. … you’re not that important and nobody gives a s**t how hard your life is.”

Jennifer also allegedly texted that Baldoni needed to be taken down a notch. She projected “It Ends With Us” might bomb at the box office, and wrote … “He needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him for it.”

But, Stephanie claims Jennifer and Melissa also had their knives out for her — in the suit, she says they worked media contacts to plant negative stories about her. Specifically, she cites one article headlined, “Who’s Afraid of Stephanie Jones?”

Stephanie is suing Justin, Jennifer, Melissa and Justin’s company, Wayfarer Studios, for damages she believes her company has suffered.

Story developing …