A friend of Pitt familiar with the litigation over the years alleges Jolie’s team is releasing “misleading, inaccurate” information “as a distraction”

Angelina Jolie; Brad Pitt. PHOTO: AMY SUSSMAN/WIREIMAGE; STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE

Angelina Jolie alleges, via lawyers in a new court filing, that ex Brad Pitt was abusive toward her prior to the 2016 plane incident that led her to filing for divorce.

As part of the former couple’s ongoing legal battle over their French winery Château Miraval, on April 4, the actress’s legal team filed a motion seeking to release communications they say would prove Pitt, 60, would not let Jolie, 48, sell her share of the winery to him unless she agreed to a “more onerous” and “expansive” NDA.

Within the new filing, Jolie’s lawyers make the claim: “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.”

A rep for Pitt declined to comment to PEOPLE.

“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,” a friend of Pitt familiar with the litigation over the years tells PEOPLE.

“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.” (Later, the judge who granted 50/50 custody was removed from the case, and the exes currently have joint custody.)

According to Jolie’s side, the winery lawsuit would not have happened if Pitt had purchased Jolie’s share when she made the offer. However, Jolie’s lawyers claim Pitt refused the deal unless it came with the NDA and suggest the actor feared that sealed documents included in their separate, years-long custody battle could be made public without the NDA.

“Jolie’s sealed filing, which included emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony and other evidence, caused Pitt to fear that the information could eventually become public,” her lawyers write, adding that Pitt wanted Jolie to “contractually bind herself to that silence” about his alleged “personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not.”

A June 2023 filing from Pitt’s legal team, however, claims Jolie was the one who suggested an “even broader non-disparagement clause” as part of the deal, and Pitt’s team presented a “narrower” one “intended to protect the business.”

“The clause also made clear that there would be no limitation on Jolie’s ability to speak in connection with Pitt and Jolie’s divorce or custody proceedings. It specifically provided: This commitment shall however not limit the ability, for any Party, to make any claims, filings or testimony in any legal proceedings.”

The topic of the NDA came up last year in the court back-and-forth.

A source on Pitt’s side said in June 2023 that “the non-disparagement clause in the contract” was a “totally standard” business transaction; meanwhile, a Jolie source claimed Pitt “refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to being silenced about the abuse.”

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on Nov. 5, 2015.JASON LAVERIS/FILMMAGIC

Jolie’s attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE April 4, “Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA. By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family. After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence.”

Separately, another source maintains to PEOPLE that Jolie “does not want to be raising any of these facts, and she is doing it only because Pitt’s lawsuit against her is forcing her to defend herself.”

The source adds that “if this does go to trial, [Jolie] will be forced to use that evidence in the trial whether she wants to or not.”

In 2022, Pitt sued Jolie and her former company Nouvel for selling her half of the winery and going against an agreement he said they’d made about not selling without getting approval from the other. Pitt has accused Jolie of intentionally keeping him in the dark about her sale to Tenute del Mondo, whose parent company is spirits manufacturer Stoli Group, owned by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler.

He said that sale “jeopardizes the reputation of the business that Pitt so carefully built.”

Brad Pitt; Angelina Jolie.MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE; MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE

Back when Jolie’s legal team brought up the 2016 plane allegations in a response filed in October 2022 for the winery case, a source close to Pitt said, “It’s incredibly sad that she continues to rehash, revise and reimagine her description of an event that happened six years ago, adding in completely untrue information to try to get additional attention for herself at the expense of their family.”

Pitt was never charged following an investigation into allegations of abuse on the Sept. 14, 2016, flight.

In the latest filing, Jolie’s lawyers write that the actress “never pressed charges as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused.”

Pitt and Jolie, who were declared legally single by a judge back in 2019, share six kids: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 17, and 15-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.