Crisis management public relations professional Melissa Nathan, hired by actor-director Justin Baldoni, is facing allegations that she played a key role in operating a network of anonymous “smear” websites. The claims surfaced as part of a lengthy legal feud between Baldoni and actor Blake Lively.
Stephanie Jones, Baldoni’s former publicist, filed an initial complaint in New York Supreme Court in December 2024. Jones accuses Baldoni’s crisis PR team of a coordinated effort to undermine her and deflect blame for what she describes as a retaliatory smear campaign targeting Lively. The core of the complaint questions who was behind anonymous websites that emerged in May 2024, accusing Jones of “holding clients hostage” and leaking their secrets.
Nathan, who previously denied being the mastermind behind the now-defunct stephaniejonesleaks.com in a deposition, is now central to new allegations. Recent documents filed in the case, provided by Katherine Case, a former employee of Jones’s firm, Jonesworks, who later worked for Nathan’s firm, the Agency Group, allege Nathan repeatedly testified falsely about the websites.
The filing claims these documents confirm Nathan was “directly involved in a scheme to utilize untraceable websites to destroy the reputation of her competitors and those adverse to her clients.” Stephanie Jones and Jonesworks are identified as among Nathan’s alleged victims.
Among the documents are alleged text messages between Nathan and Case. In these messages, Nathan reportedly offered Case “three or four grand” to enhance the website copy targeting Jones’s reputation, making it “a lot more meaty” and “good enough for us to be able to point a journalist towards.” Nathan is also alleged to have directed Case to include details about clients being “scared of” Jones and how Jones was supposedly “holding clients hostage.”
Nathan allegedly instructed Case to craft the content using a purported “whistleblower” narrative. In Case’s notes from a subsequent phone call, she reportedly outlined content that would suggest someone could no longer stand by and watch Jones’s actions, implying it was time to speak their truth about what they had witnessed. Following these alleged communications, a record from Zelle, a money-transferring service, shows a $4,000 payment to Case from “Melissa E. Nathan.”
The court filing indicates that these websites were not an isolated incident, but rather one of Nathan’s alleged specialties, marketed as a valuable service to embattled celebrities. Approximately three months after the website targeting Jones went live, Nathan allegedly texted “Pitch Perfect” star Rebel Wilson. Wilson was at the time involved in a dispute with producer Amanda Ghost regarding her 2024 musical, “The Deb.”
Nathan reportedly quoted Wilson $110,000 for an “untraceable site with a satellite, ghost server, ghost hosting, full build, maintaining, and full algorithmic push across all platforms … for 3 months,” according to the filing. The day after this alleged quote, Nathan purportedly texted Case, “Rebel wants a one of those sites.”
The ongoing legal proceedings in New York Supreme Court continue to explore these claims regarding the creation and operation of anonymous smear websites.