Getty Images
Less than 24 hours after Angelina Jolie’s legal team filed a motion, Brad Pitt’s team is filing a motion of their own.
In Pitt’s motion filing, his legal team is requesting that Jolie disclose other NDAs that she has done with other third parties, including her staff.
In the docs obtained by “Extra,” Pitt’s lawyer John Berlinski said, “If Jolie conditioned her continued employment of an individual on that individual’s agreement to an NDA covering what they witnessed in her home — including her treatment of her children and Pitt — that would be highly probative of whether she truly believed the provision requested by Pitt was an ‘unconscionable gag order.’ The same is true with respect to any NDA between Jolie and any third party with whom she is in a relationship or who has assisted with the care of the couple’s children.”
“To the extent that Jolie requested this third party’s silence about her family or homelife, particularly in a circumstance where there was no business justification, it would speak volumes about whether Jolie actually viewed Pitt’s requested NDA, which was linked to the Miraval business, as the deal-ender she subsequently alleged it to be,” Berlinski went on.
“The scope, terms, and subject matter covered by the NDAs that Jolie has signed or asked a third party to sign are probative of whether Jolie truly withdrew from the negotiations with Pitt because of the NDA he requested, as she asserts. By way of example only, if Jolie has required others to sign NDAs that were at least as broad as the one she claims was so “unconscionable” here, it would severely undermine her claimed excuse for terminating negotiations with Pitt and covertly negotiating with Stoli. Nor is the existence of these documents speculative,” the papers stated. “Jolie adamantly refuses to produce the many other NDAs that she signed or requested from others during the relevant time period, along with related documents, presumably because she knows they will severely undermine her defenses.”
In Jolie’s court filing on Thursday, her legal team claimed that Pitt was abusive to her, even before the infamous 2016 plane incident that led to their split.
Getty Images
Angelia Jolie’s Legal Team Makes New Abuse Claims About Brad Pitt
View Story
Amid their legal war over their French winery Château Miraval, the court papers were filed to request the release of communications that allegedly prove that Pitt wouldn’t allow Jolie to sell her portion of the winery to him until she agreed to sign a “more onerous” and “expansive” NDA.
The papers stated, “While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him.”
No charges were ever filed against Pitt and he denied abuse.
A source close to the actor told People magazine, “This is a pattern of behavior — whenever there is a decision that goes against the other side they consistently choose to introduce misleading, inaccurate and/or irrelevant information as a distraction.”
The insider added, “There was a lengthy custody trial that involved the entire history of their relationship and a judge who heard all the evidence still granted him 50/50 custody.”
Friends of Pitt claim Angelina’s latest allegations are a smokescreen to distract from the Miraval case.
“This case isn’t about what took place on a plane in 2016,” a friend said. “It’s about whether they had an agreement to not sell their interests in the winery and family home without the other’s consent. That’s what Brad and his team are focused on, and so far the legal momentum has been on their side.”
“The NDA Jolie was asked to sign is a standard business contract designed to protect the asset being sold — in this case her stake in Chateau Miraval,” the insider noted. “It’s unclear why she finds this so unconscionable when her own lawyers suggested a mutually binding gagging clause as part of their divorce just a few months later.”