Welcome back. Johnny Depp's defamation trial
against his ex-wife Amber Heard
is playing out in real time on television and on social media,
where millions are poring over shocking details and taking sides.
Amber, how you feeling?
My video about this pod episode is at almost 500,000 views,
and I just posted it yesterday.
It has many facets that we have to look at,
including fame, the Me Too movement, cancel culture.
It is just a, uh— sort of a perfect storm, if you will.
Number one over Elon Musk.
More than four times Joe Biden.
Abortion opinion, more than five times greater.
The Ukraine war, more than six times greater.
This story is the biggest story online in the nation.
News anchors lined up outside the courthouse.
Numerous cameras inside the courtroom live-streaming every minute.
Uh, take us for a little tour of our— I think we have video of our mobile setup.
We actually have heating and air conditioning sometimes in here.
People are live-tweeting, people are live-streaming.
What does it all mean? Where does it end?
It's been, uh, you know, a social media circus
of commentary from creators and influencers and, uh— and laypeople.
I think that the truth was lost on social media, uh, quite some time ago.
Well, there are new concerns
about the spread of misinformation on TikTok.
According to researchers,
American users spend three times as much time on TikTok than on Twitter.
Explain for us more about the app's design and why it is particularly problematic.
You have a platform that uses short videos.
It has a powerful and very mysterious recommendation algorithm.
You've got a billion users
that are constantly filtering through a very fast-moving feed.
Videos can be very easily manipulated and republished.
I was walking out of the bedroom, slapped me across the face,
and I said, "Johnny, you hit me."
You just hit me. Hit me.
There are parody videos that often get mistaken as fact.
People are obsessed with this case. On TikTok,
people could really broadcast their theories.
I was sitting there on this carpet.
Especially when the case is live in court
and you have all this footage.
You could show them authentically what is going on.
What are people posting?
talked about Australia.
I think this might decide the case,
because this is where the parties are alleging the most significant dispute,
and they're in such contradiction,
that the jury can only think one of them is true.
I think they're going to come to the conclusion
that one of them is lying about Australia.
Let's take a look about what they said happened.
I was— I was working on Pirates of the Caribbean five.
Mr. Depp, was Ms. Heard in Australia with you?
She came a little later, yes.
And what happened when Ms. Heard
came to visit you in Australia?
Um...
Thank you very much. Johnny Depp's here.
I haven't seen it, but I know it ahead of time, and now I see it,
that you're wea— wearing a, uh— a— you have an engagement ring.
I do, I have a female engagement ring—
- Yeah. - ... on my finger.
But you— you, uh, uh, you're getting married.
- Well, it's— uh, yeah. Uh, yeah. - Yeah.
But it's— it's not typical for a m-man to wear an engagement ring, is it?
No.
- Uh...
- It was too big for my girl, so, uh— - Is it?
So the woman you're, uh— Who's been on the show, by the way.
- Amber, yeah. Yeah. - Oh, lovely.
Amber!
Amber, look to your left!
Amber. Big smile, Amber!
I had proposed to Ms. Heard a couple of years before, I believe,
so we talked occasionally
about when would be the right time between schedules
so that we could actually have a wedding and a honeymoon,
and— and then go on to do the work in Australia.
I was marrying the love of my life.
It was complicated,
but he was the love of my life.
Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Depp!
We all left for the island for the...
well, the dream wedding, I guess.
We walked down the beach aisle, said our vows,
and shot the bird, meaning the middle finger,
up at the paparazzi while we were on the altar.
And we danced and celebrated.
And then I left the island 'cause I had to go work.
Amber! Straight ahead please.
Amber Heard is 20 years younger
and was building a career and name recognition within Hollywood,
but she was certainly nowhere near the star that Johnny Depp was.
- Hi, we're here with Amber Heard. - Hi.
Explain quickly your character.
I play a young girl who's caught up
in the fast-paced, decadent, 1980s lifestyle of Los Angeles,
and, uh, sh— and her, um—
She's a beautiful woman who ultimately, um—
Ultimately, that beauty causes her demise
and the demise of other characters around her.
And it was an interesting part.
I took the bus around L.A. It was before smartphones.
I had a— a Thomas Guide and a change of tank tops,
and I just hustled from one audition to the other.
- Right here, Amber. - Amber, right here.
It's been a slow progression, I guess, since then,
you know, of doing either tiny bit parts in bigger movies
or doing larger roles in movies that no one would see,
and I guess, you know, it still is kind of like that.
When you say you left the island, you had to go to work,
what— what were you working on?
And three, two—
I was filming The Danish Girl in London.
I was there doing, kind of, prep work for that film.
I was going off to Australia.
Gentlemen!
The plan was always for me to wrap on my movie
and then come and join him in Australia where he was filming Pirates five.
Okay, and when approximately was that?
That was March 3rd.
Guys, I am shocked at the massive amounts of love and support
that you guys have been showing this channel,
and specifically our coverage of the Justice for Johnny Depp movement.
Welcome back to another episode of Darthn3ws special edition,
"Everybody Loves Johnny."
Actually, scratch that.
"Everybody Hates Amber."
You have creators on platforms like YouTube.
All of a sudden,
they're pumping out videos about this trial.
If you haven't, do me a favor, hit the subscribe button,
hit the bell for alerts.
I think everybody's waiting to see the evidence. That's what I—
For those of you who don't know, Super Chats is a way,
on YouTube, for people watching someone streaming to donate.
Loww, thank you for the 100 gift, - giving me subs. - I appreciate that.
Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
It allows their comment to go to the top. It kinda highlights
that— that person and their donation.
Hey, there. If we haven't met yet, I'm Emily D. Baker, the badass lawyer,
and everyone's favorite legal commentator.
I break down the legal shit behind the news and pop culture stories
we all wanna talk about.
- We are here to call to order...
the case of Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard.
Today, we are watching through live testimony
of what happened in Australia.
Now, I'm going to ask you to take this jury through what happened
once you arrived there.
Um, I flew in. I arrived early.
Uh, I... Immediately, I walked into the bedroom.
I was so excited to— to see him.
I was looking forward to having this, kind of, you know,
"our style" at-home date. You know, a new— we're a new married couple.
We hadn't seen each other for basically a month...
after getting married.
And I start dinner and am happy to see him,
and some point early in that evening,
he pulls out a bag of MDMA.
I asked him what it was, and he told me it was MDMA.
And I was surprised because, at the time, he had already gotten clean and sober.
It was for the wedding.
So I was surprised that he would even pull out this bag,
and he kinda seemed to suggest that we should do it together,
and I was like, "Absolutely not."
Like, "I just got here. I just got here!"
"I wanna see you, I wanna spend time with you."
Ms. Heard was upset because,
as it was too late for a pre-nup agreement,
there— there was, uh, discussion of post-nup agreement.
She could not let go of the fact
that I was in on this, uh, post-nup agreement
and that I was trying to trick her
into, uh, essentially getting nothing
if, uh...
if something were to happen.
She's telling me, "You don't trust me, you don't trust me, you don't trust me."
And, um, all I could do was... try to calm her down.
- That— - Did that work?
It did not work, no.
It escalated and escalated, and t-turned into, uh...
madness, chaos.
- Can you please— - Violence.
Can you please describe that chaos and violence?
Why were you at the house that Sunday?
I was called to the house by one of Mr. Depp's assistants.
And did you observe anything when you went into the house?
Yeah, I mean, initially, I heard pretty hysterical sobbing, crying,
which sounded like Ms. Heard to me.
Just crying uncontrollably, I think it's fair to say.
There was a bit of damage down the steps.
A big chunk had been taken out of the marble staircase.
Walking down into the bar, I could see the damage,
a broken ping-pong table, sort of collapsed onto the floor,
lots of glass and cans strewn around the bar area.
Apparently, Hulk came through.
Broken glass is consistent with his version.
Who was there when you arrived?
Um, Debbie Lloyd was there.
Eleven-thirty, you wrote,
"MD received a text message from client
that he'd been arguing with wife and that he had cut his finger."
"According to patient,
his assistant and security were on their way to pick him up."
You wrote that?
According to my notes, yes.
David Kipper was there.
I went in to instruct
one of the people with him to look for the tip of the finger,
hoping that we would be able to put it back.
It was pretty extensive, all that broken glass, the blood.
There were a lot of blood drips across that floor.
It's a kind of cream-colored tiled floor. On the next floor, on the main floor,
there's a sitting room with a couch on— a cream-colored couch,
which had a fair amount of blood drips on the cushions,
and we'd set up an art studio, so a lot of the art materials from that,
you know, paintbrushes, paint, a lot of paint on the floor.
Going into the master bathroom,
there was a his-and-hers sinks and a mirror, a large mirror,
above each of the sinks that had writing on each of them.
Both of the bedrooms, I think, had blood on the duvet covers.
That's about the extent of it.
Oh, is that all?
Uh, whose job was it to clean all that up?
It was mine. It was mine.
Well, I'll— I'll just cut to the chase.
I— I think that I ended up locking myself
in about, at lea— at least nine
bedrooms, bathrooms that day,
um, as she was banging on the doors and screaming obscenities
and wanting to, uh, have a physical altercation.
So how did it come to be that your finger became injured?
I left the... place, the— the room that I was hiding in,
or not hiding, locked myself into.
And I went downstairs,
and there was a, uh, bar,
so I grabbed a bottle of vodka that was there,
and a shot glass,
and sat at the bar.
She was nowhere around.
Poured myself two or three stiff shots of, uh— of the vodka,
first taste of alcohol I'd had in a long time.
And, um...
then she came down
to the bar and found me there,
and of course started screaming, "Oh, you're drinking again!"
"Ah, the monster," and all that. Um...
You can see how he feels about that.
Um, he holds up this bottle,
and kind of gesturing with the— the bottle towards me,
and, uh, I reach for it, and he'd revoke it,
kind of laugh at me.
And he's holding out the bottle.
I think, maybe the third time or so, I get a hold of it.
I pick it up and I slam it down on the ground,
right in between us,
and I smashed the bottle on the floor,
and that really set him off.
She grabbed the— the bottle of vodka...
and then just, uh, kind of stood back and then...
hurled it at me.
Takes the second bottle, which was the larger one,
she threw the large bottle,
and it made contact
and shattered, uh, everywhere,
and then I realized that the— the tip of my finger, uh,
had been severed.
What is this a picture of, Mr. Depp?
The remains of my finger.
I-I-I honestly don't remember if I, um, threw anything in his direction.
I— I don't think I did.
Um, I just remember him having me by the nightgown.
Um, I remember him flailing me, uh, throwing me around.
I'm flailing, um...
I remember at one point, he's teasing me, he— taunting me,
that I— he has my, um— my breast in his hand.
Um, my nightgown came completely off.
It was ripped off of me.
So... [voice breaks] I was naked,
and I'm slipping around on this tile,
and...
at...
at some point,
he's on top of— of— of— of me.
I'm on the countertop,
he had me by the neck,
and I'm looking at h— in his eyes.
And I don't see him anymore.
I don't see him anymore.
It wasn't him. It was black.
I've never been... so scared in my life.
It was— It was black. I couldn't see him.
And... ... my head was bashing against the back of the bar,
and I couldn't breathe.
Um, this is a lot.
And I remember trying to get up, and I was slipping on the glass.
My feet were slipping, my arms were slipping on the countertop.
And I remember just trying to get up so I could breathe,
so I could tell him that he was really hurting me.
I didn't think he knew what he was doing.
I don't know how.
I'm sorry.
I couldn't breathe.
Please.
I don't—
I don't wanna do this.
Amber Heard has said on the stand
she doesn't have a clear recollection of how things unfolded,
but she has alleged
that he sexually assaulted her with a bottle.
There were a couple of points in the trial that,
uh, should have never come out so publicly.
It is so hard to assess the credibility
of either Johnny Depp or Amber Heard for one simple reason,
they're both actors.
They're good at getting people to feel the way that they want them to feel.
Welcome to Popcorned Planet, I'm Andy Signore, and I'm not gonna lie,
today was rough.
I'm feeling bad for all the survivors out there
that just watched this performance 'cause I'm not buying it,
and I've gotten so many messages from so many of you
who have been through similar experiences,
and you're not buying it either.
Like, he was on top of me,
and I'm loo— I— I'm looking at h— in his eyes,
and I don't see him anymore.
I don't see him anymore.
Ligature marks and finger marks bruising is very, very common.
And I'm sorry that that was your experience,
but thank you for sharing your experience with the chat.
So they're like, "Look,
these are the things we find, uh, confusing."
"Amber Heard is a psychopath"
is currently trending on Twitter, so, uh...
If you are mentally and physically abused,
like, a person of domestic violence,
male or female,
would you be able to go to court,
get on the stand,
and be a lairy, smarmy bitch?
Has anyone seen Gone Girl?
Wait for your clueless husband to start his day.
Meticulously stage your crime scene.
It's fake. It is so fake!
Like, how could you make such a mockery
of the victims like she's doing?
Sexual penetration with an object is really severe,
and unlike the rest of what she says about Johnny Depp,
almost requires some sort of sadistic nature,
so I think Australia, his story's more believable.
This has moved away from, like, a news story or a lawsuit,
and it's— it's— it's transformed into a cultural moment.
And I wasn't old enough to experience the impact of the O.J. Simpson trial,
but if I had to guess,
the hold, the chokehold that this lawsuit has on the world...
- It's up there, yeah. - ... it's comparable.
And also the ways in which information and news are spread
is very different today than it was before.
- O.J. TikTok would have been...
- Oh, my God. - ... wild.
Truly wild.
- Truly wild. - Yeah.
Social media is clearly playing a role in this case.
I cannot tell you how much time I spend dealing with folks on social media.
And I tell you what, the Johnny Depp folks are fanatics.
And while working for TMZ,
were you involved in any assignments related to Ms. Heard?
I was.
On the 12th, we received a video,
um, depicting, um, Johnny Depp, um, s-slamming some cabinets
that was captured by Ms. Heard.
How does that video that was played in this trial
compare to the one you received on August 12, 2016?
It was much shorter than the video we had recei—
uh, than the video that's been played in this trial.
There was some— a bit at the beginning that was played here,
which Ms. Heard is, um, seemingly, sort of, setting up the camera
and getting into position,
and then there's a bit at the end
where she's seemingly sniggering and looks at the camera.
That part was not present in what we received.
Did TMZ edit the video?
No, not even a little.
- Nothing further, Your Honor. - Cross-examination?
Yes. Uh, so, you know this case is being televised, right?
I— I am aware that there are cameras.
And so this gets you your 15 minutes of fame.
Objection, Your Honor. Argumentative.
- I— I can ask that question. - Overruled.
Um...
and I'm not seeking any 15 minutes here.
Though you may— you're welcome to speculate.
I could say the same thing, by taking Amber Heard as a client,
for you.
The issue when you go in court
and when you have to testify and when there's evidence brought,
it's really— it's quite literally airing your dirty laundry.
That's why celebrities always settle cases.
You never want to go into court for that very reason.
Could they not have figured this out privately? Um...
I think— And we've talked about this before on the show.
I think that making it, um, accessible to the public was a strategy,
I think, probably brought to the table by Johnny's team.
This podcast is for entertainment purposes only.
With this Depp/Heard trial, the engagement is phenomenal.
I mean, it's just so cool to see everyone get involved
and wanna know about the legal process and the laws that are involved.
But that's— The thing is about justice
is that it's not about the truth,
it's not about right or wrong.
Unfortunately,
it's about what the judge or jury believes,
and that's—
And on the information that's presented.
And that's why trials are theater.
It's not nec— It's supposed to be this search for the truth,
but it's really about us orchestrating what witnesses we're gonna bring in,
the order of proof that we're gonna present this story,
and how we're gonna do it,
what we're gonna keep in, what we're gonna keep out.
This is Law Disrupted,
and today we have the privilege of speaking with Camille Vasquez.
Johnny's testimony was a— a key point for us.
It was the first time that the world,
really the jury, right, in— in this case,
the jury got to hear from him in his own words.
We needed to give him the opportunity to speak and speak freely.
We introduced the jury to Johnny Depp and who the real Johnny Depp was.
So, we introduced the jury to his sister,
who was able to give a background
about who the little boy was... before he became Johnny Depp,
and who the man is now.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. All right, your first witness.
Miss Dembrowski, would you please tell the jurors
what your relationship with Johnny was like
when you were growing up?
Um...
Johnny and I were very close. Uh...
We were just friends. We were like best friends.
Miss Dembrowski, how would you describe
your parents' relationship?
That was complicated.
Um, I had a very...
interesting childhood,
um, one that I thought was normal until a certain age.
Could you please tell them about your history of substance use?
At about the age of, I don't know,
f-four, five years old,
I— I can remember vividly my— my mom
telling me to go get her nerve pills,
you know, um,
out of her purse that was hanging on the back of the door.
So I'd go get the nerve pills and I'd take it,
and, um, you know, after a few years,
you start to notice—
well, you start to think about "nerve pills."
"Nerve pill."
And then she seemed to calm down after she took those "nerve pills."
So, when I was 11 years old,
um,
I wanted to calm down.
I'd bring my mom her nerve pill,
I would walk away...
and I would take one myself,
um...
to escape the— the chaotic... nature
of— of what w— of what we were living, uh, through.
My mother was...
quite unpredictable,
and she was quite violent,
and the physical pain,
y-you learn to deal with, you learn to accept it,
but the, uh, psychological and emotional abuse,
that's what, uh—
that's what kind of tore us up, I think.
Mr. Depp, is there any substance you've ever been addicted to?
- Yes. - And— And what is that?
Um...
Roxicodone.
So far, everybody's just making these speculations
based off of whatever they're reading.
We haven't heard it out of the horse's mouth until now.
And now that we have, or started to hear about these things...
it only makes him seem like a more honest human being,
a more likable person.
The pills that I was addicted to, the— the Roxicodone,
which are very, very powerful opiates,
two of those
would knock me out.
You go on what's called "the nod,"
and then it takes you away into sleep.
It's just very deep sleep.
We see Johnny Depp very open about his drug use,
that I think the other side was going to try to use against him,
but he knew, he's going to admit to it, his friends admitted to it,
and they kind of, you know, took the sting out of it from the other side.
They— Nothing really happened with it anymore, right?
Once you admit it, they can't really do anything with it.
There's no movement.
This is a picture of you on a— on a black leather couch,
passed out, correct?
Passed out's an interesting way of putting it.
Maybe "asleep."
That's ice cream on your lap, correct?
It is indeed. Uh, Ms. Heard asked me to hold the ice cream
as she noticed that I was on a— on the nod,
that means "falling asleep,"
um, from the 17-hour day that I'd worked, and also the opiates that I'd ingested,
and that was a wonderful picture to take for her.
- Sure— - I don't know why she took it.
Well, so it's Ms. Heard's fault
that that picture was taken.
That's— Is that what you're saying?
She— She snapped it.
Interesting to see how the jury interpret this information.
Will they interpret it, as Ms. Heard wants,
as evidence of Johnny having a "dark side"?
Will they interpret it as evidence, as Johnny says,
of a girlfriend setting up her partner
to look like a bad guy? Follow me for more legal TikTok.
You took this photo, right, Ms. Heard?
That's correct.
So you decided to take a picture of Mr. Depp asleep on the floor?
He was passed out.
You took this picture as well.
Yes.
This is a picture of Mr. Depp taking a nap
on his tropical island, on vacation.
We were on vacation, yes.
You also took this picture, right, Ms. Heard?
That's correct.
And this is another picture of Mr. Depp asleep in a chair.
No, he was, um, nodding off.
Uh, "asleep" is different.
When you're nodding off, you're high on drugs.
He didn't even feel the cigarette in his hand that had,
you know, been burning on his leg.
Uh, it was cause for alarm for me, naturally, um, because I cared about him.
You seem to like taking pictures of Mr. Depp
while he's sleeping, don't you?
I hated it.
You decided to take a picture of Mr. Depp asleep
with ice cream spilled all over him.
This isn't a very flattering picture of Mr. Depp, is it?
No, it's not.
You did, in fact, send this picture
to your friend, Rocky Pennington.
Yes, I did.
And this is you protecting Mr. Depp?
That is me getting support from my best friend.
This is you supporting Mr. Depp?
This is me getting support from my best friend.
I also need support.
- My God, I'm— - I'm so disappointed!
I'm so disappointed in you, Andy.
- I'm so sorry, guys. The truth is there. - It's so upsetting.
I'm a monster. I must be a monster because I passed out
on my bed last night,
and Yami took a photo and it's over.
Can you guys friggin' believe this was put into evidence?
He's taking a freaking nap on vacation!
Like, what the fuck is this photo?
- There is a money aspect to this too. - Yes.
Social media, now influencers,
you— you study this for a living, I don't have to tell you,
they make money sometimes for posting content.
How— How is that playing into this particular moment?
Become a member today.
Hit that join button. You'll be supporting the channel.
We would love if you hit the like button.
It does help us with the YouTube algorithm gods.
You need to make sure the next thing you do,
no matter what, is smash the hell out of that subscribe button.
You have creators on platforms like YouTube
who previously were getting hundreds of views
on videos about anything,
ranging from video games to music to art.
All of a sudden, they're pumping out videos about this trial.
I'm subscribed to some of you
and it's— it's cool to— to be on a stream.
Videos that make Johnny Depp look good and make Amber Heard look bad
because a— those are the only ones that people want to see,
and they're being able to make money for the first time ever.
They're getting viral videos off of this case,
getting millions of views.
Y'all have gotten wild, and I appreciate you.
This is the road that we're on.
Thank you so much.
It's kinda fun to just watch the numbers spiral, and I appreciate it.
This is a— This is a wild growth chart.
You know, you keep saying, "It's glorifying Johnny Depp."
- But that is the dominant stream, right? - Oh, yes.
It's not the other way.
Up until recently,
you really couldn't find any TikToks in support of Amber Heard.
- Wow! - The entire platform was pro-Johnny Depp.
And I've heard from those creators themselves that if someone comments
and says that they have a neutral position
or they think that maybe Amber is a victim,
they immediately get dog-piled, harassed,
abused themselves in these comment sections,
and no one wants to speak up in support of Amber Heard.
And as this high-profile trial plays out in court, social media users
are— are sort of rallying around Johnny Depp,
as Steve alluded to.
They're— They're looking for holes in the defense's case,
and they think that they found one.
This is what Amber carried in her purse
for the entire relationship with Johnny Depp.
This was what she used.
She became very adept
about how she had to mix the different colors
for the different days of the bruises to be able to cover those.
So Milani Cosmetics is the company that is sort of jumping into the fray
in this case.
They said that their, uh, color correcting compact,
it's a compact that came out in 2017.
It was the same compact that, uh, defense attorneys used
to say that, uh, Amber Heard used this specific kit
to cover bruises she allegedly received from Johnny Depp.
Now, Milani jumped into the fray by posting a TikTok to say,
"Actually, this kit came out in 2017."
"Amber Heard filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016."
"There's no way that she used this specific kit
in order to cover alleged bruises."
This was just an example of something that she used,
and this is not the actual compact that she used,
but many people took the TikTok that Milani Cosmetics posted,
and said, "Hey, this is definitive proof that Amber Heard's attorneys are lying."
Amber Heard just got exposed
in another big lie from her court case with Johnny Depp.
She said that Amber carried that in her purse
to cover the bruises through her entire relationship.
Well, that palette didn't come out until after the divorce.
Meaning this makeup palette did not exist when they were together! Boom!
And the truth will set you free!
The TikTok has been viewed more than five million times.
All right, so I'm here at the Fairfax County Courthouse.
It has caused real-world consequences.
We saw one user actually go to the courthouse...
All right, going to the judges' chambers.
and seek out, uh, Johnny Depp's lawyers and attorneys,
and say, "I have evidence for you that you need to see."
Some people are actually criticizing the cosmetics company
for jumping into the fray, saying, "Hey, you did this for clout."
Like, "There was no reason for you to jump in here."
I think a lot of people, uh, are this— as this room,
which is, "I just took Amber Heard's accusations at face value."
I wanted to believe her.
Like, this makeup kit would suggest that maybe she's not completely truthful.
People obviously have their opinions. This is a celebrity case.
Johnny Depp is clearly winning right now in the court of public opinion.
Amber Heard or Johnny Depp?
- Come on, you gotta answer. - Johnny Depp.
Do you believe Johnny or do you believe Amber?
And it's ultimately what this case can— comes down to.
'Cause they can't both be right. One is lying.
Who do you believe?
Well, that depends probably a lot on your biases.
And— And, uh, if you're inclined to believe Johnny,
you just identify with him,
then everything he says is gonna be believed,
the negative things that are brought out on cross
are gonna be discounted and explained,
"Well, maybe he didn't send that text message."
The drug stuff, "Sure, that doesn't matter."
See? We minimize, we excuse, because that's our favored party.
And then, for Amber, it's like,
everything out there negative about her,
it's— we seize on, "of course," 'cause that validates our belief.
We are watching the final stretch of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp
and their dueling defamation trial playing out in Virginia.
Amber Heard, she is on the stand,
really pushing back on the cross-examination.
You're seeing a little bit of a— a difference
in the way Amber Heard is answering Camille Vasquez,
and Camille Vasquez is being extremely aggressive with her.
Let's go back in, in the moment where we left off.
You spoke about donating your divorce settlement
on a Danish TV show, correct?
Uh, I believe I said I had, um...
I— I believe I said I donated it to charity.
You appeared on a show called RTL Late Night, right?
I don't recall what it— what show it was.
If we could please play Plaintiff's Exhibit 346,
which is a portion of your appearance on this program.
For the divorce settlement, you got seven million dollars.
People were saying this is all about the money.
But then you did something that, uh, twisted that whole argument.
What did you do with that money?
Seven million dollars in total was donated to—
I split it between the ACLU
and Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
ACLU is a human rights organization?
Sorry, ACLU is a prominent, um, uh, organization,
non-profit organization in the United States.
It's called the American Civil Liberties Union,
and they work on behalf of marginalized communities,
uh, on the ground, in legislative reform.
- And— - Right. Well, more power to you.
Because that's something I've never heard of.
I wanted nothing.
So, in this October, 2018 interview,
you said that you had, quote, "donated," end quote,
your entire divorce settlement to charity, right?
That's correct.
And in fact, your exact words were,
quote, "Seven million in total."
"I split it between the ACLU
and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles," end quote.
- Right? - That's correct.
I made that statement as soon as I got a divorce
and we reached the settlement.
That's when I pledged it, right then.
But you hadn't donated your entitle— entire seven million dollars settlement
to charity at that point, had you?
That's incorrect.
Sitting here today, Ms. Heard, you still haven't donated
the seven million dollars divorce settlement to charity,
isn't that right?
Incorrect. I pledged the entirety—
- Ms. Heard, that's not my question.
- ... I intend to fulfill those obligations. - Ms. Heard? Ms. Heard?
That's not my question.
- Please try to answer my question. - What was your question?
Sitting here today...
It's so awkward.
you have not donated the seven million dollars,
"donated," not pledged, donated,
the seven million dollars divorce settlement to charity.
I use "pledge" and "donation" synonymous with one another.
- Same thing. - But I don't. Ms. Heard?
- I don't use it synonymously. - That's how donations are paid.
Ms. Heard, respectfully,
that's not my question.
So, as of today,
you have not donated seven million dollars of your divorce settlement
to charity, right?
I have not been able to fulfill those p—
uh, those, uh, obligations yet.
Amber is literally trying to convince the jury.
And she keeps looking at the jury.
She is trying to sell this story
that she donated the whole seven million that she got from her divorce
because she pledged it.
Amber is very articulate.
She's very smart.
Um, but yes, she does look at the jury,
which is a little bit weird, when she's addressing her comments.
She may be looking at that jury more than any other witness has
in the past during this trial, because she wants to keep their attention.
And that's because you did want something, didn't you?
I didn't want anything and I didn't get anything.
You wanted Mr. Depp's money.
Didn't get it, wasn't interested in it. I loved Johnny, that's why I was with him.
- You wanted good press.
In general, one... does want good press, yes.
You wanted to seem altruistic publicly.
Wasn't my interest.
Uh, my interest is, uh, in my name, in clearing my name,
and, at the time, I was being called a liar
and my motives were being questioned.
I did see it as important to... clear that up.
I wanted to make a statement,
to make sure that there was n-not any doubt,
that I couldn't be labeled these things just because Johnny was a bigger star
and had more publicity reach.
You wanted to remind everyone of your claims of domestic violence
against Mr. Depp, right?
No, I wanted to move on with my life.
You wanted to make those claims seem believable.
They are believable.
- They were believable. - You wanted them to be seen—
You wanted to be seen, excuse me, as a noble victim
of domestic violence, didn't you?
I have never, never wanted to be seen as a victim.
- Nor have I ever called myself one. - You—
You testified under oath,
that, quote, "The entirety of your divorce settlement
was donated to charity," end quote. Didn't you?
That's correct. I pledged the entirety.
What's the big deal with Amber Heard and these donations?
"Scamber Turd" exposed herself yet again
and it might have just cost her the entire trial.
Pinocchio might have to sue her for identity theft,
these lies are getting out of hand.
You pay donations through pledging them?
No, you pay—
You give donations by giving them money,
not by saying you're going to give them money.
She doesn't know the difference between "donate" and "pledge."
Right.
I think I'm gonna "Amber Heard" it, you know?
Pledge ten, twelve million dollars to a great organization.
You know, and since "pledge" and "donate" is synonymous,
we're all good.
He's won already in the court of opinion.
Whatever this jury comes out to, he's won,
and he needed the court process
to extract evidence and statements from Amber.
And that leaves us to the— to— to the real question,
which is, what is the actual truth?
Where does that come from?
That's the jury's job.
I wanna know how they picked the jury for this.
I was thinking about that too. Like, "This has gotta be—" I mean,
like, I'm assuming the jury's, like, sequestered away.
- Yeah. - This is a big—
Sequestered away from where?
Philip, let me start with you. How important do you think
social media is, and what's going on out there
in the social media universe, to this case?
All that really matters is that you have a jury of seven
who does not go on social media
and is going to assess what went down based purely on what is presented in court
and not what is, you know, on TikTok
or in Instagram posts or on Facebook, etc.
They've been able to interact with friends, family,
and so, while they're not supposed to engage in social media
and know what's going on in the public sphere,
it's kind of tough to say that no one on that jury
has been exposed to it whatsoever, so I do think that's a concern.
And the impact of the crowd cannot be overlooked
in that courtroom every day.
Do you think that the jury gets it right in most cases?
Do you think that they understand their responsibility?
Of course, the judge tells them what they're supposed to do.
You're not to read anything about this case.
You are not to watch anything about this case.
You're not to listen to anything about this case.
This applies to television, newspapers,
magazines, the Internet, and any online sites.
Further, you're not to read, watch, or listen to anything about this case
on any social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Snapchat, etc., or any similar sites.
The jury should've been sequestered.
You would hope that they would not look up anything.
It's very, very hard to be a juror.
I do not envy these jurors at all.
Six weeks being in that courtroom!
Again, it is not fun.
Not one of them had a fucking clue
that they were walking into Johnny Depp's fucking trial.
I-I-I think this is fantastic that this is being broadcasted,
and I think that everything that's coming together,
this is gonna get bigger and crazier.
"Did he just kick me?"
Mr. Depp calls Kate Moss to the stand.
Would be a detrimental thing to Amber's case.
And there is a real risk
that not only could he lose this case as the plaintiff,
but Heard has a $100 million counterclaim.
This thing could get real bad,
even worse, real fast for Mr. Depp.