I’m not a 'good victim,' I get it. I’m not a likable victim. I’m not a perfect victim," Heard said. "But when I testified, I asked the jury to just see me as human and to hear his own words, which is a promise to do this. It feels as though he has.
Adam Waldman
Shortly after the divorce Depp hired Adam Waldman, who was the subject of Amber's defamation counter claim, to be his attorney. For years he's been coordinating an online smear campaign against Amber to ruin her career and shield Depp from violating the divorce NDA and risks of defamation. The biggest attacks against Amber came in the form of bot accounts and planted news articles. Amber testified that Waldman actually threw a newspaper at her with one of these articles.
Adam Waldman is the agent to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who has ties to the Russian election interference in 2016. Many of the bot accounts posted with Cyrillic characters, indicating Russian origin. We know from the election interference that Russia has the ability and reach to pull off a disinformation attack like this. The accounts pushing Amber hate and statements from Waldman often shouted him out in their tweets despite him being a relatively unknown attorney. One went as far as saying "I love you waldman!" This was obviously meant to rub in Amber's face that he was responsible for trying to ruin her.
A woman named Catherine Armecin, who previously had very little publishing presence beforehand, wrote over 30 negative articles about Amber in February of 2020. These articles, and others, were then amplified by these bots. The agency which these articles were published, International Business Times, has been criticized for being operated as a content farm. Change.org petitions were created to get her removed from her L'Oreal contract and from Aquaman. We know from emails that Depp specifically reached out to try and get her removed from the movie. There's also evidence to suggest that the majority of the signatures on the Aquaman petition were bot signatures.
That Umbrella Guy
That Umbrella Guy
That Umbrella Guy
Was fed information directly from Adam Waldman since at least 2021 and has made over a thousand videos about Amber on his Youtube channel.
That Brian Fella
That Umbrella Guy
That Umbrella Guy
Was fed information directly from Adam Waldman and edit audio together to change the context of a crucial audio.
He cut everything in red to give the impression Amber said wouldn't stop hitting Johnny.
The Real Laura B
That Umbrella Guy
The Real Laura B
Was fed information directly from Adam Waldman and focuses a lot of her social media content to pro Depp/anti Amber content.
The Sun vs Johnny Depp
Months before Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard over the claim that her op-ed ruined his career, he sued Sun Magazine for the same reason. The Sun printed an article calling him a wife beater while criticizing JK Rowling for hiring him for Fantastic Beasts. This is particularly important as it disproves the notion that Amber's accusations and op-ed ruined his career. During the trial Depp said he felt the UK was his best chance to clear his name, and that the VA trial would not produce a clear and reasoned judgment with only a jury.
Reasoned judgment (click to open)
In Depp's lawsuit he noted that his best attempt at redemption would be through a fair and reasoned judgment from an experienced judge like Justice Nicol. The UK is known for being much more favorable to plaintiffs of libel lawsuits and the burden of proof was on The Sun to prove that Depp was a wife beater. Judge Nicol had ruled against the Sun in other instances and in one article, they implied he was a judicial dictator. The judge found Depp and many of his witnesses to not be credible as they were caught in many lies and contradictions. One particular lie was from Depp's body guard Sean Bett. He presented a photo of Depp with a black eye claiming it was from a fight at Amber's birthday party that he says he took on his phone. On the stand the metadata showed the picture was actually from a year ago when Amber admitted to punching Depp to protect her sister. He later said the photo was given to him by Adam Waldman and he just assumed the information was correct. After spending 3 months reviewing the evidence, Justice Nicol ruled that Depp was in fact a wife beater. Depp appealed twice and it was ruled the judge gave a fair and reasoned judgment.
THE JUDGE RULED THAT THE FOLLOWING INCIDENTS OCCURRED:
Early 2013: Depp slapped Amber so hard she fell to the ground.
March 2013: Depp hit Amber and gave her a bloody lip.
June 2013: Depp threw glasses at her and ripped her dress.
May 2014: Depp screamed at Amber and kicked her in the back on a plane to Boston while extremely intoxicated.
August 2014: Depp grabbed Amber by the hair, slapped her, and pushed her to the ground.
January 2015: Depp slapped Amber, pushed her to the ground, while standing over her screaming.
March 2015: Depp gave Amber a busted lip, swollen nose, and cuts all over her body. He pushed her to the ground, choked her, and spit in her face.
March 2015: Depp grabbed Amber and hit her in front of her sister almost knocking her sister down the stairs.
August 2015: Depp grabbed Amber by the throat and pushed her into a wall.
December 2015: Depp threw a glass decanter at Amber, slapped her, and dragged her through the apartment by her hair. He hit her in the back of the head, head-butted her in the forehead, and then pushed her face into a mattress while repeatedly punching her in the back of the head.
April 2016: Assaulted her at her birthday party.
May 2016: Threw a phone at her face and yanked her around by her hair.
During the UK trial and up until his ban from Twitter, Waldman was constantly tweeting anti-Amber content in an attempt to discredit her.
Hopefully that cunt's rotting corpse is decomposing in the fucking trunk of a Honda Civic!!
- Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp v Amber Heard
Fairfax, Virginia
In response to an op-ed written by Amber Heard, Johnny Depp filed a lawsuit against her, despite never being named or her detailing any specific incidents of domestic violence. In fact the only thing she said that even alluded to him was that "two years ago I became the face of domestic violence." This is factually accurate, as their entire marriage and divorce battle was extensively covered by the media. They also released a joint statement that said neither made any false allegations for financial gain. The op-ed aimed to bring attention to the issue of men in Hollywood being protected from consequences by their power and influence. Even if one were to doubt the validity of Amber Heard's allegations in 2016, everything she wrote in the piece was either factual or her own opinion. The fact that Depp was able to sue her for $50 million to silence her and take away her freedom of speech raises concerns about power dynamics and supports the overall message of the op-ed.
Typically, when filing a lawsuit against someone, you need to do so in the forum that is most convenient and appropriate for both parties. Most often, that would be the state where one or both parties reside. However, in the defamation trial in the US, Depp filed in Virginia, where neither he nor Amber had ever lived or worked. There's something called "libel tourism," where parties "forum shop" for a state with more lax laws regarding defamation. California has much stricter anti-SLAPP laws for defamation claims; therefore, Depp knew he would never succeed there. After Depp filed his lawsuit in VA in 2019, there was a push in the state to strengthen their anti-SLAPP laws, and his lawsuit was specifically cited as part of that push.
Virginia passes anti-SLAPP bills after Johnny Depp, Devin ...
("Anti-SLAPP" refers to a legal mechanism designed to protect individuals or organizations from frivolous or meritless lawsuits filed against them in response to their exercise of free speech or other legally protected activities. SLAPP stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.")
He argued that he should be able to file his suit in Virginia because the Washington Post, which published the op-ed, had computer servers in the state. This was another bizarre ruling from the judge, who accepted this argument despite the fact that WaPo has servers in other states and WaPo wasn't even part of the lawsuit. The issue with "forum non conveniens" is that it can present unfair advantages to the opposing party. In Virginia, for example, you're not able to subpoena a witness from out of state. This meant Amber wasn't able to compel witnesses to testify in Virginia. The majority of the time, she was forced to rely on prior video deposition testimony, which is shown to be less compelling to jurors than in-person testimony. It also left Amber unable to ask rebuttal questions or call back witnesses in instances where new information may come to light.
Virginia doesn't typically allow cameras inside the courtroom, especially in cases involving sexual assault, which makes the judge's decision to televise the trial especially cruel. Despite Amber's petitions to exclude cameras from the trial, the judge declined due to the case being civil, rather than criminal. Even Amber's attempts at compromise, such as requesting camera exclusions on days where she recounted her sexual assault, were denied. One section of Amber's testimony, where she recounted an incident of sexual assault by Depp, later gained viral attention when a clip of her mentioning her dog stepping on a bee was circulated. The decision to televise the trial turned it into a spectacle, exacerbating the already disturbing nature of the case. People lined up for hours for the opportunity to get inside the court room. During one day of the trial, two Depp supporters were removed from the courtroom by armed guards after old tweets threatening Amber's life were discovered on their accounts.
"I can't wait for the day that I kill Amber Heard."
Amber had to pass throngs of people dressed as pirates or in poop costumes, shouting obscenities, booing, and waving hateful signs while Depp came and went like he was leaving a rock concert. Amber's most traumatic testimonies were turned into memes, while Depp was cheered online for mocking and antagonizing her attorney. Everything she did was scrutinized, while Depp was celebrated for drawing pictures and eating candy in the courtroom. She was accused of snorting cocaine from a tissue, while he was applauded for mocking the term "mega pint." The phrase was taken from Depp's own words in the UK trial and then used to mock Amber's attorney due to its absurdity. Merchandise from the trial flooded the internet, with T-shirts featuring Depp as Jack Sparrow with the phrases "mega pint" or "hearsay," next to shirts of Amber's face in unflattering poses with the phrases "turd" or "my dog stepped on a bee" on them. A sex toy company even went as far as creating a product in the shape of a Maker's Mark whiskey bottle, which was the presumed object that Depp was accused of using to sexually assault her. These items and others contributed to a disturbing trend of profiting off of the pain and trauma of real people involved in the trial.
It wasn't just Johnny Depp fans and bot accounts fueling the hatred towards Amber. Celebrities and several well-known product brands, such as Milani Cosmetics and Duolingo, joined in on the public shaming. One pervasive rumor used to discredit her was born from a TikTok created by Milani Cosmetics after Amber's attorney used one of their makeup palettes as a prop during opening statements. A popular TikTok sound called "International Super Spy" was played over a video of the cosmetic brand "investigating" and "proving" the palette was made after the divorce, even though neither Amber nor her attorney claimed it was the same palette. The internet seized upon that video and spread the rumor. There was even video of a fan walking into the courthouse to find Depp's lawyers and give them this "revelatory" information. Naturally they did nothing with it because they understood it was only a prop but that didn't stop the lie from catching fire and being repeated almost a year later. Milani Cosmetics has yet to apologize for inserting themselves into a case about domestic violence and sexual assault.
The entire internet was bombarded with anti-Amber and pro-Depp content. Lawtubers, Twitch streamers, TikTok creators, and pseudo science body language "experts" seized the opportunity to use the trial and the pro-Depp sentiment to increase viewership and, in turn, their own profits. Some made over $80,000 a month from views and YouTube tip jars as they streamed the trial every day on their channels and offered commentary. The more cruel they were towards Amber, the more engagement they received. Anyone supporting Amber on any platform was harassed and silenced. Even Amber's expert witnesses were subjected to horrific online harassment. Several of them had their professional practices review-bombed by rabid Johnny Depp fans while they were still testifying on the stand.
https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-psychiatrist-dr-spiegel-social-media-response-was-vile-2022-6
https://god.dailydot.com/amber-heard-witnesses-review-bombed/
Despite overwhelming evidence that dated back years, the relentless online assault no doubt played a significant role in Amber losing the case. Jurors were instructed to stay off social media for 6 weeks, yet the trial was relentlessly promoted and shared on every platform, inundating viewers with the details of the case and turning it into a pervasive topic of discussion. After the trial ended, one of the jurors anonymously called in to "Good Morning America" to justify their verdict. Two things he said were particularly noteworthy. During testimony, Amber was ripped apart online for "looking at the jury too often" and having "crocodile tears". The juror used both those phrases in his statement to "Good Morning America". Witnesses are often instructed to address the jury when testifying, since they are the ones who are determining the outcome. This was clearly weaponized against her to further demean and discredit her as a witness.
The juror also made a perplexing statement, claiming that "If she didn't do any of this stuff with the op-eds, Johnny Depp could have helped her out in her career." The fact that the juror could come to the conclusion that Amber and Johnny ended their relationship on good terms, despite weeks of testimony detailing allegations of abuse and irrefutable proof that Depp attempted to get her fired in 2016 is baffling. Furthermore, the statement implies that the negative consequences Heard faced to her career and personal safety are her own fault for speaking out. It also means they ignored the overwhelming evidence presented during the trial of Depp launching an online smear campaign against her.
Several people from inside the courtroom, including the court reporter, said that jurors were falling asleep during testimony. One juror was apparently experiencing some type of mental health issue when it was reported to the judge that he was talking to himself in an elevator and another was allowed to remain on the case even after admitting that his wife had texted him saying "Amber is psychotic". Journalist Nick Wallis covered both trials in person and just released a book on his experience. In it he details how someone who he was working with saw a juror walking out of the jury room. The juror was on the phone talking to someone and said "I can't believe people thought that!" and she was seen with a web page open on her phone and the headline of the page said Amber H. This individual reported what she saw to the court and a report was taken but the juror wasn't removed and remained through the verdict despite express instructions to remain off social media and to not research the case.
These details, along with many other bizarre occurrences, only further stacked the deck against Amber and highlighted the absurdity of the entire trial. The damage this trial has done to victims is immeasurable. Defamation suits noticeably increased in its wake and women online were being called Amber 2.0.
Depp's Witnesses
Dr. Shannon Curry
Dr. Curry is personal friends with Depp's lawyer Camille Vasquez. After a 4 hour interview with dinner and drinks at Depp's mansion, Curry agreed to a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder almost a year before ever meeting and interviewing Amber. In a designation dated 2/16/21 it stated she supports that Amber "exhibits patterns of behavior that are consistent with co-occurring Cluster B Personality Disorder traits, especially Borderline Personality Disorder." This was filed with the court 10 months before Curry ever examined Amber. It goes without saying that you should assess a patient before labeling them with a very serious and complicated personality disorder that is over diagnosed in women and most therapists hesitate to give due to the negative implications. Not a single one of Amber's prior therapists, whom she saw for years, ever discussed or mentioned anything to do with BPD during their treatment of her.
During her testimony she blatantly lied when she claimed Amber hit her friend, Rocky Pennington, out of the blue. Rocky testified that she had pushed Amber first during an argument and Amber either pushed or slapped her in response. First impressions make a big impact and fraudelently claiming Amber assaulted someone out of the blue serves to shape Depp's offensive strategy to discredit and paint her as the aggressor. Rocky's testimony was the only one of Amber's witnesses that Curry focused on because outside of the marriage this was the only instance of Amber ever getting close to acting "violent".
Expert witnesses are supposed to be neutral but in addition to all the conflicts of interest above, Curry was liking anti-Amber tweets and interacting with pro-Depp Lawtube accounts like Emily D Baker while the trial was still happening. The first judge on the case had denied Depp's request for this exam because he said it appeared the aim was to deliberately find witnesses to discredit Amber. When Azcarate took on the case she overruled the judges prior ruling.
Kate James
James was Amber's former assistant who was fired in early 2015. In her witness statement in the UK she claimed Amber stole her rape story. The statement didn't go into any details so it gave the public the perception that Amber lied about being raped. At the time Amber's story was sealed and she couldn't have known what the details even were. She eventually admitted Amber had repeated the fact that she and James had a conversation where Kate James' confided in Amber about her rape. Amber did not steal the details of the rape. James was also caught lying about not being in contact with Depp after she had been fired. Text messages showed that right before the divorce was finalized in 2016, Depp messaged her saying they should get together over wine so they could "fix Amber's flabby ass real good." James was never an employee of Depp's so there would be no reason for him to be contacting her unless he was looking for find someone with a vendetta such as his.
Kate Moss
Kate Moss only testified to dispel one decades old rumor. She didn't confirm or deny any other instances of abuse. A lot of weight was given to this testimony but Amber only ever stated she had heard the rumor, which most people in the 90's had as well.
Morgan Tremaine
Tremaine was a former TMZ employee who was brought in to testify about the cabinet slamming video and Amber at the courthouse when she filed for the TRO. His testimony was meant to imply that Amber had called TMZ to take pictures and that she gave TMZ the video but he explicitly said he didn't know for sure. In fact the TMZ article stated the cabinet video came from Depp's insiders. Depp's divorce attorney has a close working relationship with TMZ and they were aware that Amber would be filing the TRO that day. He's since done his best to capitalize on the 15 minutes of fame his testimony brought him.
Jennifer Howell
Howell was a former friend and Amber's sister Whitney's former boss. Howell runs a non-profit called The Art of Elysium that Amber would volunteer at during her free time. Her testimony is that Whitney told her it was solely Amber who got violent and assaulted Depp on the staircase which Whitney and Amber both deny. She testified that when Amber pledged her divorce settlement she was upset that Amber hadn't donated it to her charity which shows she was bitter over not receiving money she felt entitled to. When Amber dated Elon Musk for a short period he made a donation to the Art of Elysium in Amber's name.
Morgan Higby Night
Morgan Night was brought in to testify that he witnessed Amber being abusive towards Depp on a trip to the Hicksville trailer park. He tweeted to ThatUmbrellaGuy, several weeks after the trial started, that Amber was lying and that he was with them all night. At trial he stated he was only with them on and off for a total of 45 minutes. He was presented as a neutral witness when in fact he met Depp at the Viper Room in the 90's and is associated with Depp's ex-wife Lori. Lori Depp was a guest on a podcast live stream in April 2023 where she said she wished there was something she could legally do to hurt Amber.
Bryan Neumeister
Bryan Neumeister doesn't have a degree in digital forensics. When he testified about Amber's photos he implied that Amber's photos had been put through an editing software called Photos 3.0. "Photos" is the picture storage app for all Apple products; 3.0 was the latest version. It was not a "photo editing software" as he implied. There was no evidence that Amber edited her photos. In fact there was evidence from Amber's digital forensic witness that it was Depp who had manipulated his photos but he wasn't allowed to testify to that fact. Depp's photos and audio dates had missing or irregular metadata including modified dates the day before the files were turned over as evidence.
Officers Hadden and Saenz
In the UK, Justice Nicol gave little weight to their testimony because they had testified to having been at the penthouse for 30-45 minutes when footage confirmed they were there for less than 15 minutes and took no notes. A representative from the LAPD stated the officers didn't follow proper protocol for investigating potential domestic violence calls. The footage needed to be subpoenaed despite that fact that the building frequently provided Depp with CCTV footage so he could track what Amber was doing. He was insanely jealous and paranoid over her cheating despite the fact that it was shown he was cheating on her almost the entire relationship.
Isaac Baruch
Isaac lived rent free in several of Depp's homes and Depp has given him over $100,000. In the UK he never mentioned a video of Amber supposedly fake punching her sister but somehow he testified to that in VA. In fact they had a different witness in the UK, Trinity Esparza, claim she saw Amber pretend punching her sister. Despite the allegations and the requests for proof, no CCTV footage of this has ever been produced. This was just one of many examples of Depp trying to change his story between the UK trial and the VA trial. Isaac did however confirm that there were wine stains on the floor the day of the incident where Depp struck Amber in the face with her cellphone. This is the incident which Waldman claimed was a hoax and that the jury ruled in Amber's favor in her counter-claim.
Dr. Laurel Anderson
Dr. Anderson was their couples therapist and she testified that there was violence in the marriage. The unsealed evidence shows in her full deposition that Amber had told her Depp had hit her and pulled her hair out. He was also the first to initiate violence. Dr. Anderson also testified that she was bruises on Amber not only in pictures but in person.
Depp's bodyguards/other witnesses
The majority of Depp's witnesses are or were financially dependent on him or close friends/relatives. Depp paid some of his bodyguards up to 10k a day. Depp's bodyguards were also at his beck and call 24/7 yet he wants you to believe that Amber beat him while his security team stood by and did nothing. We're also supposed to believe that his sister, whom he also employs, didn't know what she meant when asked about a prior text message she sent to Depp saying "stop drinking. stop coke. stop pills." Great effort was made to downplay Depp's substance abuse because domestic violence very often co-occurs with substance abuse.
Camille Vasquez and Dr. Shannon Curry out partying.
Camille, Dr. Curry, and Depp at one of his concerts in the months after the trial.
Dr. Curry looking adoringly at Depp after both sides rested their case. Again expert's are supposed to be unbiased.
Camille and Curry.
Dr. Curry interacting with a pro-Depp lawtuber prior to the verdict.
Dr. Curry liking a tweet from 2020 about female perpetrators of DV while the trial was ongoing.
ThatUmbrellaGuy mocking the idea that he was in direct contact with Adam Waldman.
Less than an hour after denying it, Adam Waldman admitted under oath to being in contact with him.
ThatUmbrellaGuy discussing Johnny and Amber as well as his sources almost a year before the VA trial started.
TheRealLauraB trying to out a pro-Amber Twitter account and doxxing an innocent woman in the process. The only similarity she had to go on was the Twitter user Kamilla had an avatar of a black woman and the woman at this PR firm was black.
Morgan Higby Night discussing his dislike of Amber with Depp's ex-wife Lori. Depp and Lori divorced before Amber was even born.
Morgan Higby Night replying to ThatUmbrellaGuy on Twitter several weeks into the trial. He would conveniently go on to testify where he was questioned under oath about following a pro Johnny Depp Twitter account. He unfollowed as soon as he got off the stand.