00:00:19.920I did not have people, at least of my friend level, reaching out to me about Baldoni in a negative way.
00:00:30.000I'm so happy to see you, Victoria Burke.
00:00:38.480I did reveal yesterday that you posted on your social media about this 47.1 law
00:00:46.520and that you're not really supporting what's happening right now.
00:00:50.700And then I watched you on Megyn Kelly and I was like, wow, I have to talk to you.
00:00:55.800I think a lot of people have so many questions for you.
00:00:58.860So my first thing is I'm wondering, like, what made you change your mind?
00:01:04.960Because in the beginning of this legal feud, it seemed like you were, like, happy what was happening and you agreed with the judge when Baldoni's lawsuit was dismissed.
00:01:16.880But then something changed or what changed?
00:01:22.180First of all, this is like the first time my bill was being used.
00:01:25.380That month of March of last year, I had three attorneys contact me that they were using, you know, my bill or I became aware of three attorneys that were using the bill.
00:01:36.060And so I seen this in the headlines. I'm like, oh, my God, that's my bill in the headlines.
00:01:41.180And I mean, to be honest, I had never really followed Blake Lively.
00:01:46.760I wasn't a fan of Gossip Girl. I never watched. I was more watching Jersey Shore at the time in law school.
00:01:52.040and so I knew Ryan Reynolds from Deadpool and I wasn't familiar with Justin Baldoni and I
00:01:58.320had seen the movie on a plane like that January so I hadn't really kept up you know a lot was
00:02:04.580going back and forth I hadn't done the deep dive at that time and suddenly I didn't expect to be
00:02:09.200pulled into it and so or at least excuse me let me take a step back my bill to be pulled into it
00:02:14.440not me and you know so this is the first time my bill is being tested and I'm like wow okay this is
00:02:21.240on the national stage. Usually bills like this are very small. They, you know, they don't get
00:02:26.500any headlines. I had no idea when I did this, this is where it was going to go. And then, you know,
00:02:33.020I was thinking, you know, I just mentioned it because I felt it brought attention to the bill
00:02:37.760that survivors were not aware that this protection existed. And this case highlighted that this was
00:02:44.380available to survivors. So I'm like, this is a good thing because I was in process of moving this
00:02:48.780bill nationwide. So I could point to something. I'm like, you can look at it. This is the bill
00:02:53.720and follow along how it works. And so I could point to that to different legislatures
00:02:58.280and let them know, like, you know, if you need to see something, that's how it works.
00:03:02.860I have never said, like, I favor these facts or the others. Even my friends have been very clear.
00:03:10.160I don't know them. I don't know the facts of the case, but I have been very protective of my bill
00:03:15.580because I know the foundation of my bill was rooted in good law and lots of research.
00:03:21.760And I wanted to protect the constitutionality when that became an issue.
00:03:45.580Because in my mind, I could also see my bill being used by those who are falsely accused, that they could protect themselves.
00:03:51.400Like if someone sued them saying, you know, you shouldn't say that you didn't do this to me, that they could also use it as a defense as well.
00:03:59.240Both sides should be able to say what the events were that night.
00:04:03.660First Amendment should be able to speak out.
00:04:06.680And so I've only spoken about how I feel about the constitutionality of the bill or how people are applying it or using it.
00:04:14.580so when all of a sudden i just hear that it's been dismissed my phone's blowing up like i'm
00:04:22.100getting you know messages like it's been dismissed your your bill it's amazing it's done it i'm like
00:04:27.060what what so i'm seeing this cnn article and i just read through and i did not get a chance to
00:04:35.680read the full like uh ruling by the judge it's 151 pages i'm not sure if it even had been formally
00:04:41.560posted at that time and i'm like seeing the defamation lawsuit had been dismissed and in
00:04:47.220the article i was looking at and they mentioned that the judge had mentioned 47.1 i jumped the
00:04:52.320gun and presume it had to be about my bill so i'm like wow because the judge had left in the damages
00:04:58.920and i presumed if they were left in my bill was still active and there was going to be i had
00:05:04.640thought maybe the judge was waiting until after this harassment case was resolved in case something
00:05:12.220came up that showed malice there or didn't show malice let's put it that way it could easily be
00:05:18.140whatever the evidence was and that maybe he was going to hold a hearing then it's very odd you
00:05:23.700know to see that you know it was dismissed procedurally but then the attorney fees were
00:05:28.720kept i was like question mark not quite understanding so is my bill going to like
00:05:34.220have something to do with you know the actual harassment so i was this is new application for
00:05:39.600me as well you know this is like how it's working very different but i also felt like
00:05:45.300well if it's dismissed procedurally it's kind of over like that was also my opinion like i'm not
00:05:51.920quite sure what happens or how you get this when there hasn't been a hearing on the facts there's
00:05:57.760been no legal experts there's been no witnesses there's been no discovery i'm like i don't think
00:06:03.640he could just say, I dismissed it procedurally. You get attorney fees. That's not the intention
00:06:09.320of the bill at all. That was not the intention. So at that point, did you know, had you read,
00:06:15.020like, did you know about the evidence that came out in Baldoni's, you know, from Baldoni's side
00:06:20.580at that point? Or were you just like, okay, I, you didn't know much about the case and you just
00:06:26.420thought, okay, they're using my bill here. It's actually an action. And that's something positive
00:06:32.060for survivors is that I was looking at focusing about my movement of the bill nationwide I wasn't
00:06:39.440really paying attention because I thought this would be sorted in the case like I wasn't speaking
00:06:44.840about the facts so it wasn't like I was being misquoted I favor Baldoni I favor Blake I wasn't
00:06:50.180speaking about either one of them being right or wrong and I felt any smoking guns will probably
00:06:54.820come out trial and any lack of smoking guns will also be exposed so I was like I don't even need
00:07:00.260to think about I need to think about progressing the bill nationwide because last year I added
00:07:04.940three additional states so I am just slowly moving and it's just me there's no team it's just me so
00:07:11.440it takes up time for me to progress the bill so that was my focus I have to say for I know a lot
00:07:18.540of people are watching my channel as well are survivors as well and this law is designed to
00:07:23.880protect those people and all those survivors out there. And now, like you were insinuating in your
00:07:30.700post that it's being misused by a celebrity for PR purposes. So when did you come to that
00:07:38.740kind of conclusion? Like, this is not a good thing. Was it a specific thing that you learned
00:07:44.480about the case? Or is it something that happened recently after they went to trial again or to
00:07:50.500court again to try and get these attorneys fees? Was there anything like anything specific?
00:07:56.560Yes, there was. After this case settled, I was like, yay, it's done. It was all settled and we
00:08:02.900could just like the focus couldn't return to advocacy. And, you know, I had presumed that 47.1
00:08:10.120was somehow concluded as well because the harassment part had been dismissed. And so
00:08:17.280the other part had nothing to do with like the defamation claim of like the 47.1
00:08:21.380so i'm like that's probably i just presume that's gone and so it's over and i received a
00:08:27.980communication from blake lively's legal team i was one of many people on it that was detailing
00:08:34.160that blake is now going to be taking steps to move california's 47.1 nationwide she's going to be
00:08:42.920like, you know, bringing awareness through retaliatory defamation lawsuits and including
00:08:47.340New York. And I'm like, I'm confused. I have the bill currently introduced in 15 states,
00:08:54.480and I introduced it in New York back in 2023. Some states take multiple years to get it through.
00:09:01.180California is very lucky. I was told it was going to take two to three years in California. It took
00:09:04.620one. So each state I've learned, Oregon moves very fast, Connecticut, Maine, one year, other
00:09:10.560states multiple years. So I'm like, you're moving it to New York. It's in New York. And even Otter
00:09:15.960is like, you haven't even contributed letter support for the bill in New York. I have a packet
00:09:20.720of like 25 letters of support. Blake Lively's name is not among those supporting it. And I say that
00:09:26.820because usually in every local area, I have local survivors that come to support the bill and they
00:09:33.880support through written testimony. And they will contribute their own letters about what's happened
00:09:39.120to them and their circumstance and what their situation is and there was not one from her so I
00:09:44.980was surprised so I responded like I already have a nationwide movement going on and I said my
00:09:53.040strategy has always been to fly it under the radar because we get zero opposition I'm only
00:09:59.540only if I have to like do a story like when Cuomo came up and I had to defend the bill
00:10:04.140then i was like doing media but otherwise i prefer in other states just to fly it under
00:10:11.040until it gets passed that's like always been my modus operandi so so do you think so they wanted
00:10:17.100to basically hijack this movement from you and and design the law to fit blake lily's case better
00:10:24.120or like i read in some article that they were even trying to protect brian reynolds well in this
00:10:30.720yes i mean what's strange i did find out like all this is like coming to me like in end of april
00:10:38.660may while i'm in europe all this is unfolding i'm not even in the country and i'm playing catch-up
00:10:45.600like what is happening and one advocacy groups lets me know that blake lively's attorney has
00:10:54.020had meetings with this advocacy group once a week even though like we already have group meetings
00:11:00.920set up with many people but these was a private one i guess i don't know i don't even know who's
00:11:05.520part of it i know i wasn't and she was contributing to the drafting of like some rewrites to the bill
00:11:11.800and i'm like oh what did and i was never sent the like rewrites and what she added and i was told
00:11:18.720she added a paragraph i said can i see the paragraph it's kind of important that i know
00:11:23.980it's the language of the bill and i was told that the paragraph has something to do with protecting
00:11:30.280attorneys if they would be sued i'm like attorneys might be sued as part of a defamation case i'm
00:11:39.060like okay i'm sure that does happen i have heard of it happening but i told the survivor group you
00:11:45.100that was advocating for the bill i'm like look you need to remove that i said the focus needs to be
00:11:49.340on survivors because lawyers have privilege money and insurance like and a lot of people don't even
00:11:57.260like attorneys we need to return it back to the real victims like this has to come back this way
00:12:02.620i said if it comes up i'm going to say strike it like if when it comes up i go suggest that gets
00:12:07.180removed i don't want that in the bill and so i thought why i could have we could have resolved
00:12:12.060of this earlier in the spring. It's now late season. We're almost at the conclusion. They've
00:12:16.380been dragging their feet with having these rewrites to the point where the session's
00:12:20.300almost over. And I'm like, we've lost the session. I mean, did you speak to Blake and
00:12:25.860Ryan directly ever? Did you have any communication? I did at one point because one of the advocacy
00:12:32.140groups had asked me if I could request from her a video support for the bill, which she
00:12:37.380declined. They declined that? Yes. I had mentioned to her that we have this bill, but we are thinking
00:12:44.660about possibly attaching the language to this bill because this other bill is a little bit further
00:12:48.300along. And they decided, at least to me, like that's too complicated or whatever. I don't know
00:12:53.920the reasoning, but it was a no. And they did not seek out any other ways to help the bill. And I
00:12:59.360don't push. I'm like, that's fine. And I went on about my business. And that's why I said not even
00:13:04.820a letter of support but to hear you're behind the scenes doing the draftings odd so when i said to
00:13:10.840her in the communication like who was this was it ezra hudson yes yeah yeah we all know yeah
00:13:19.580yes it was ezra i have the email um and i said to her you know i prefer you know like not be
00:13:27.920associated because our sponsor last year compared her to amber heard and we made a decision this
00:13:32.560year not to have celebrity involvement i said if it changes next year we could let you know
00:13:36.520i said at this time we're not doing that because we're looking at local survivors and we're putting
00:13:41.580the focus on the local survivors we had heard even feedback we don't want celebs we want local
00:13:46.920survivors how is it impacting the campuses and you know like um any victims in a workplace you know
00:13:54.160ordinary ones that like more relatable how does it affect the ordinary man like the ones who can't
00:14:00.300for their legal fees, such as because the point of the bill was there had been so many retaliatory
00:14:06.000defamation lawsuits being launched that victims or survivors were finding it easier just to go
00:14:11.660silent. It was cheaper because these lawsuits often take five, six or seven figures to defend.
00:14:19.060And since silence is cheaper, what happens is they just go away and society doesn't benefit
00:14:25.000when we don't know that someone might be a problem predator. Because if we learn anything
00:14:28.700for me too they're usually a serial predator oftentimes it's not just one victim it's more
00:14:33.940than one so we benefit when real victims come forward and that's like really helpful so you're
00:14:39.640saying real victims do you believe like likely as a victim or a survivor you know i can't speak to
00:14:47.800it there was no trial i don't i don't know what would have happened i know she was going to go to
00:14:52.120trial and i know that she was going to speak up but we didn't hear like i'll never know i mean i
00:15:01.120i've heard her version and it could be her version is true i don't know these people
00:15:06.480i have no idea if she thought this was harassment it didn't raise this harassment she believed it
00:15:11.560was she had other motives i can't speculate i try to stay away from the facts with that but
00:15:16.820I when I sent that to Ezra it was not well received she said thank you for your perspective
00:15:23.400and your perspective yes oh wow okay yeah from all communications and additional meetings took
00:15:31.420place thereafter planning of how Blake would be participating in the bill in New York but I was
00:15:38.740not part of these discussions and I didn't know why because Blake was aware of my story um you
00:15:45.460know it's in the media you know who i am her lawyers communicating with me so i am the architect
00:15:51.640behind the bill but all of a sudden i had a feeling like oh no my bill is becoming the met gala
00:15:58.280the fendi event and now 47.1 this is part of a pr campaign and i felt sick and i'm like
00:16:05.740please don't do this to the bill because it damages so much for survivors and you know i did
00:16:13.460not want to lose, you know, people thinking like this is just a PR tool when I move it across the
00:16:18.280country. I didn't want to hear like, oh, you know, she's leading the charge across. And worst case
00:16:23.540scenario, we're both leading the charge into different states. I already have it in with
00:16:27.860certain legislators. She's introducing other legislation and we're competing and it's going
00:16:33.560to split. And I thought I have put in my own money, my own time, my own resources to protect
00:16:41.160survivors because i said i didn't just want to protect my voice i wanted to protect the voices
00:16:46.520of others who didn't have the legal background to defend themselves or my resources you know i
00:16:51.960didn't find justice through the court system you know i had you know been assaulted i woke up
00:16:58.760in a coma in the er after having been at a restaurant and i had gone you know to the police
00:17:06.560And unfortunately, the hospital where I was did not automatically test my blood for any date drugs.
00:17:14.060And, you know, so I was they kept the blood for seven days, but the police failed to retrieve it to test it themselves.
00:17:21.080The video where I was kept in the car in a parking lot for over an hour was not retrieved in time and was deleted.
00:17:29.620So multiple factors that were just sad and tragic were leading to no prosecution.
00:17:34.520But I told myself, justice comes in many forms. What if I can protect survivors speaking out? Because this bill incentivizes attorneys to take on these tough cases from a client who may not have the money to fight their costs, their legal costs.
00:17:51.020And that was like the intention to also dissuade someone with a meritless claim, but also to incentivize an attorney that might be like, oh, this is good because they would have to front the costs of a defense that may last several years.
00:18:06.060but if you find out at the end you'll recover those attorney fees so the survivor if they
00:18:11.580aren't being malicious at least could be made whole because if they prevail and show that what
00:18:17.460they said was not malicious they otherwise would get a huge debt like not only were they harassed
00:18:23.860assaulted now they have maybe five six or seven figures debt who knows what's going on with them
00:18:31.240Like, you know, they might not be, you know, they might be damaged.
00:18:34.340I'm thinking like, oh, my God, this has happened.
00:18:50.420And I feel like, you know, when Blake Lively came out with her allegations and we all looked at them and we were like, you know, he said you're once he was sexy.
00:19:00.540that just putting that in the category of something,
00:19:05.160you know, in the same category of something
00:19:06.600that you've experienced is just such an insult,
00:19:10.280I think, to all real survivors out there.
00:19:13.800And I think also, you know, your bill was designed
00:19:16.740to help women that, you know, had the strength to stand up.
00:19:24.360But it's, yeah, no, I just find it so heartbreaking
00:19:27.580the way it's been abused and the way that you are now
00:19:30.460being squeezed out of it basically and this is your legacy your life's work and they kind of
00:19:37.720took it from you are they are they now are they still like advocating advocating for this law in
00:19:44.920different states without you being involved at all is this is that just happening now
00:19:49.320communication i don't know like i don't know i i am aware that additional meetings and discussions
00:19:55.660have occurred. I don't know the substance of these beyond the fact that New York was being
00:20:00.920discussed. So I'm not quite sure when she says nationwide moving 47.1, ignoring the fact I'm
00:20:07.520already moving it as the Speak Your Truth Act, which is the original name I gave the act. So
00:20:12.180everyone knows it by the umbrella term, because each state will name it something different,
00:20:16.260but they'll also call it the Speak Your Truth Act. And each state makes it a little bit different.
00:20:20.700Every state has a little bit, they tweak it for whatever they need.
00:20:49.380Same with Illinois. They're on all the meetings. We've worked really hard with numerous advocacy groups to get input because I wanted a strongly vetted bill.
00:20:59.220You know, I wasn't shying away from the challenge of like what I had written need to be redrafted.
00:21:03.260Like, OK, let's let's change it for the better. Let's let's move the language around.
00:21:07.380So what we came out with was, you know, 47.1, but another state might put it in their anti-slap section.
00:21:13.120So different states have chosen to do different things. But to all of a sudden have this like, you know, sideshow circus show up. I'm like, it's press up to go through the legislature pushing for a bill. I'm not understanding that's not the way. It's about survivors. I'm a survivor writing it for survivors. We need to recenter it.
00:21:39.140Are you worried now? I mean, these people are so powerful. We've seen what they've been able to do. Are you worried now when you're talking about it that they will somehow, you know, reach out to you, try to silence you like they did with me and so many other, you know, journalists and content creators that they subpoenaed to try and silence? Have you thought about that? Are you worried about that?
00:22:04.760I am fortunate that most of the things have been in writing.
00:22:06.840good for you i mean i know my phone's been ringing now i may not have been able to answer it
00:22:16.640probably wise yeah can you talk a little bit about when when you had a meeting with blake
00:22:24.120what was her questions did she seem like she was interested at all in like
00:22:29.200you know i had heard that she had wanted to meet me and it's a funny story because i'm like well
00:22:38.000i'm in la but i happen to be in new york for the bill and so i told her lawyer well i will be in
00:22:45.160new york advocating and her attorney had asked if i can meet on this one particular time on
00:22:51.500wednesday and i said i can't because i have reservations at the louboutin cafe for afternoon
00:22:55.860tea so I won't be able to make it and she's like can you move it I'm like no I really wanted that
00:23:01.280reservation it meant something to me yeah big treat in New York City so I'm like I wanted to
00:23:06.660go there so um and then when I went to Albany at one point I heard another communication saying
00:23:13.040like Blake can meet at a different time that day and I said I think I'll be done with the afternoon
00:23:17.480tea by then if I am I'll be able to make it and when I was up in Albany I said Blake Lively's
00:23:24.780asked to meet me and I said you know what do we think of this because we had been like not really
00:23:31.320wanting to engage at this point we're trying to feel it out like how are people reacting to it
00:23:37.660and I asked was put forward at the time of like you know could you request her to do a video
00:23:44.740in support of the bill and I'm like yeah I could do that so that was when I went there I told her
00:23:51.060my story of what happened to me why the bill's important to me you know she told me her mom had
00:23:57.720a story i met her mom met ryan met her children and then i had asked her um at some point you
00:24:05.840know about the video and you know because there's two separate potential bills not one
00:24:10.880that it wasn't a good fit for them and i'm like okay and so i left and as i said no i'm sorry
00:24:18.140So her mom was there, Ryan was there, and all her children were also present at this meeting?
00:24:24.180I think it was just, they happened to have time.
00:24:27.320I don't know if it was like for a thing, if I was being, you know, I don't know if that was a calculated or if it just happened stance.
00:24:35.220I don't know if it just happened to be at the time when I was coming, because I moved the time, maybe they weren't going to be there.
00:26:03.020We need to get this in because it needs to get through committee.
00:26:06.100So I didn't know at what point her involvement started.
00:26:09.380I don't know. Like when she became like, you know, her lawyer became involved in the draft.
00:26:15.700I don't know. I'm not party to any of the conversations of where this continued without me.
00:26:21.760And then they tried to get protection from Ryan Reynolds through it too. As far as I understood
00:26:25.900that they, him and Leslie Sloan also, because they were actors for Blake Lively. So they wanted to
00:26:34.160be also protected under this law. Is that right? The way I understand that, that they did that?
00:26:39.380So I can't remember I didn't do that deep a dive of what their claims were at that time.
00:26:43.460I just had focused on the means with Blake and Baldoni.
00:26:47.740And now you said in your social media post that you don't think she should get any fees.
00:26:52.880I feel at this point because the case was already dismissed and, you know, last year on a procedural basis.
00:27:01.300And I just felt that the judge might have been holding it open to see what came next from the harassment claims.
00:27:08.960But then when those got dismissed and then they settled, I'm not sure why she was still there.
00:27:15.680Like, you know, that's what are we doing here? I'm not sure.
00:27:19.180Because are we starting a whole new trial for a case that's dismissed?
00:27:23.620What does that look like? So, you know, is the judge going to make the decision?
00:27:27.600Who is going to be the fact finder here? So this is like, you know, very different.
00:27:31.740And so I felt like, well, it seemed like it had concluded.
00:27:35.340So in your bill, was it also suggested that the person who, or the defendant, would have to pay triple damages and also, what is it called?
00:29:46.040Yeah, I mean, I would, yeah, I'm not surprised by anything anymore, but I think it's so sad when, you know, people like you that have done such amazing work for so many women, especially, and that you're being dragged into this, in a sense, that's just so unfair.
00:30:03.620And I'm so sorry that, you know, that this has happened to something that you worked so hard for.
00:30:10.400And, yeah, is there anything else you want people to know?
00:30:14.120Would you what would you say to Justin Baldoni today if you could say something to him?
00:30:19.360I would say, you know, I had thought that this, you know, attorney fees would not be warranted at this stage.
00:30:25.440That's, you know, those are my private thoughts on my private Instagram.