Yesterday saw a surprise trial update in the ongoing $50 million defamation lawsuit between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard that apparently prevented Depp from having to go under oath again. Instead, it looks as though Heard’s lawyers will not be calling him to the stand.
The trial has been a lingering public event since it began and has been constantly analyzed at every turn by legal experts, body language experts, media outlets, and fans of both stars alike .
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But while the trial has gone on, a second battle over public opinion has waged between Depp and Heard’s supporters, with the former both showing up to support Depp and calling Heard’s own intentions and actions into question .
And on that front, there are no shortage of people waiting on bated breath for the next thing Depp has to say . However, it now seems that the same cannot be said for either Heard or her lawyers at this time.
For those who need a refresher, Depp’s defamation case against Heard stemmed from an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post about surviving domestic violence.
Although NBC News reported that this op-ed detailed Heard’s entire life experiences in dealing with abuse and does not mention Depp by name , Depp is now claiming that this piece had disastrous implications for his career.
He is also claiming that he never struck Heard or any of his romantic partners and that Heard was the one who abused him, which eventually led Heard to countersue for $100 million.
As part of that countersuit, Heard’s legal team had initially planned to question Depp and would call for him to testify.
People confirmed that this remained part of their strategy as recently as May 21, but were informed by an unnamed source close to Heard that her lawyers were no longer interested in taking any statements from Depp .
As this person put it, “Calling Depp back to the stand would be as relevant to us as a bicycle to a fish. Everything Depp has testified up to this point has been irrelevant to the heart of this case, and there’s no reason to believe it would be any different now.”
Heard’s team is now accusing Depp of spearheading a public campaign to paint her abuse allegations as a “hoax” and present her as a perpetrator of such actions instead.
This counter-narrative is suspected of jeopardizing Heard’s role in Aquaman 2 and Heard’s team maintains that it distorts the context of any violent actions on her part during her relationship with Depp.
According to NBC News, Heard is stating that she was only ever violent in self-defense or as a means of protecting her younger sister from Depp.
And while Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez maintained that Depp’s goal is the truth and that he alone hasn’t changed his story, Heard’s representatives have claimed that Depp’s relationship with the truth isn’t as strong as he thinks.
Her team has argued that Depp’s lawyers have blocked evidence from being introduced and described their opponents’ legal strategy as “panicked.”
In the representative’s words, “If Mr. Depp was truly innocent, why has he repeatedly apologized to Ms. Heard and promised to put the ‘monster away for good’? One of Ms. Heard’s disappointments is Mr. Depp’s inability to distinguish fact from fiction — a malady which appears to have spread to his legal team.”
It remains to be seen who the jury finds more convincing.
