Amber Heard‘s lawyer claims the actor is unable to pay the more than $10 million she owes Johnny Depp, as mandated by a defamation trial verdict that was reached Wednesday.
The attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, appeared on the Today Show to speak out about the trial, which unfolded in Fairfax, Virginia, in a publicly broadcast legal battle that stretched on for over six weeks.
When asked by host Savannah Guthrie whether Heard was able to pay the $10.4 million judgment, Bredehoft said, “Oh no, absolutely not.”
During the interview, Bredehoft also alleged evidence in Heard’s favor was suppressed by Depp’s team, that his lawyers “demonized” Heard, and that the online vitriol Heard has faced amid the trial “absolutely” had an effect on the case.
Bredehoft also said Heard plans to appeal and claims “she has some excellent grounds for it.”
The actual verdict of the trial was mixed, but Depp’s side won more of their points and was awarded a larger monetary judgment overall. A jury ruled in favor of Depp for all of his questions in his defamation lawsuit against Heard, declaring she must pay him $15 million in total. However, due to punitive damages restrictions that are part of Virginia state law, the judge capped the total sum to around $10.4 million that Heard owed Depp.
The jury actually did rule in favor of Heard in only one of several of the questions in her counter defamation lawsuit against Depp, awarding her $2 million. They found that Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in the press by claiming her domestic abuse allegations against Depp were an “ambush, a hoax.”
For those who have been following the trial, it might not come as a surprise Heard would not be able to pay such a hefty sum of north of $10 million, even if she would technically be awarded $2 million, too. One of the revelations that surfaced during the litigation is that Heard did not fulfill pledges to charity she made that totaled more than $7 million, having only paid a fraction of that amount, according to testimony by representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Heard said in testimony this was due to receiving divorce settlement money from Depp in installments, having to break up the charity donation payments into installments due to tax purposes, and being saddled with legal fees from Depp suing her.
However, Depp’s lawyers indicated during the trial that the full $7 million was allegedly paid to her more than a year before litigation began. Heard also did not do herself any public image favors by disputing the definitions of “pledge” vs “donation” when it came to a discussion about giving to charity under cross-examination by Depp’s lawyer. Heard had previously falsely indicated in published interviews that she had already completed the donations, Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez pointed out.
Depp originally sued Heard for defamation for $50 million, with Heard counter-suing for defamation for $100 million. Depp’s lawsuit against Heard centered on an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for the Washington Post. Although she did not name Depp in the article, she referenced becoming a “public figure representing domestic abuse” two years prior, in an apparent reference to public domestic abuse allegations she made against Depp via filing a temporary restraining order against him. Depp has denied he ever abused Heard, saying he was the one who received abuse from her. He said the allegations hurt his career.
