Johnny Depp's legal team wants a court to force the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to reveal how much money that Fantastic Beasts star's ex-wife, Aquaman star Amber Heard, actually donated to the organization after Heard claimed that she donated half of her divorce settlement with the Pirates of the Caribbean actor to the civil rights defense group.
Depp and his lawyers believe that Heard has been lying about the size of her donation and they believe that proving that she lied will be a major factor in the upcoming $50 million defamation lawsuit that Depp filed against Heard that will finally make it to court in Virginia next year (Heard has filed a $100 million defamation countersuit against Depp, as well).
Depp's lawsuit is based on a December 2018 piece that Heard wrote in the Washington Post that alleged that Depp was physically abusive of Heard during the couple's brief, tumultuous marriage. Heard didn't actually refer to Depp by name in the article, but a court has already ruled that it was clear who she was talking about it, so Depp could still pursue a defamation claim against her. Since the piece was written in the Washington Post, that's why the trial will be taking place in Virginia, far from Heard and Depp's respective homes in Los Angeles.
Depp recently lost a similar defamation lawsuit in England against the newspaper, The Sun, for referring to him as a "wife-beater" based on Heard's claims. A British judge agreed with Heard's characterizations of their altercations and agreed that "wife-beater" was a "substantially true" description of Depp.
The reason why the donation amounts matter is that one of the reasons that the judge gave for believing Heard's version of events over Depp's was that one of Depp's biggest claims was that Heard only married him for his money and the judge noted that Heard claimed that she donated all of the $7 million that she received from Depp in the divorce settlement to charity, half to the ACLU and half to the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles and that "Her donation of the $7 million to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.'"
Therefore, if Depp can prove that she did not actually donate the money, it would buoy his claims about Heard's character and that could impact Depp's chances of winning his defamation suit. The ACLU currently refuses to tell Depp's lawyers how much money Heard actually donated and so Depp's legal team wants a court to force the group to reveal the amount. The Children's Hospital, for instance, has already admitted that it has only received $100,000 from Heard, not the $3.5 million she claimed to have donated. Depp's lawyers believe the same to be true about the ACLU donation (they believe she has only donated $450,000 so far to the ACLU).
The court decision here could have a major impact on the seemingly endless legal fight between Depp and Heard.
Source: Daily Mail