Blake Lively Told By Judge to Narrow Request For Phone Records

Blake Lively and her legal team need to narrow their request for Justin Baldoni's communications ... so says a federal judge who ruled on the motion.

In a new order issued Friday, a federal judge ruled on Lively's request for cell phone communications of parties named in a sexual harassment lawsuit, including Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and Jennifer Abel, among others ... partially granting part of the subpoena, while rejecting part of it.

Basically, the judge finds the subpoena simply too broad -- calling the subpoenas Lively's side wants from Wayfarer Studios "overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case."

The judge points out that Lively and her team are asking for more than two years of communications -- beginning in December 2022 ... even though Lively has argued the alleged smear campaign against her didn't begin until August 2024 -- so, the judge says it's hard to justify the need for all those records.

However, the judge is granting part of the order ... allowing subpoenas or requests seeking the phone records of non-parties to the lawsuit even though Wayfarer claimed such a subpoena infringed on their clients' privacy.

Justin's attorney Bryan Freedman tells TMZ ... "The Court must put a stop to Ms. Lively’s egregious attempt to invade our clients’ privacy. This is a big win. No matter how the Lively Parties may try to spin this decision, the Court saw their efforts for what they really are: a desperate fishing expedition intended to salvage their debunked claims long after they already savaged our clients’ reputations in the New York Times."

As we told you ... Lively made the request for phone communications earlier this month in hopes of finding a "smear campaign" smoking gun. Freedman called out the subpoenas for being too broad at the time, too. BTW ... Lively already amended the subpoenas in an attempt to make them less broad -- though a judge clearly thinks she didn't go far enough.

A rep for Lively tells TMZ ... "What is Bryan Freedman hiding? After promising to release all the 'receipts,' Freedman ran into court to keep secret the phone records of who Baldoni, Heath, Sarowitz, Nathan, Wallace and Abel were calling during their retaliatory campaign."