Amber Heard files appeal against Johnny Depp libel trial verdict
Amber Heard has filed an appeal against her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s US libel lawsuit win.
Following a trial lasting several weeks earlier in the year, a jury in Virginia found in favour of Depp, ruling that a 2018 Washington Post article written by Heard was defamatory.
The actor was awarded $15m (£12m) by the court – comprising $10m (£8m) compensatory damages and a further $5m (£4m) in punitive damages – but the judge capped the punitive damages in accordance with legal limits, resulting in a total of $10.35m (around £8.5m).
Depp’s case was that Heard defamed him in the article, in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
While she did not mention the 59-year-old by name, he argued that the implication was clear – and denied allegations of abuse.
The Court of Appeals of Virginia received an opening brief for Heard’s appeal on 23 November and US media outlet Deadline has shared details of the 68-page report. It comes after the Aquaman actress filed an official notice that she would appeal earlier in the summer.
Heard, 36, is calling for the original verdict to be dismissed, or for a new trial to be held, according to the document.
Lawyers for the actress argue that Depp and the case have “no meaningful connection” to Virginia and that it was “wholly inconvenient” for him to sue there rather than California – where “both parties lived and where Depp claimed to have suffered reputational harm”.
They said Fairfax County Court, where the trial took place, was “mistaken” in its conclusion that Depp’s claims arose in the state because the Washington Post’s servers are located there.
They have also argued that the case should not have gone to trial at all in the US following the verdict in Depp’s separate case against The Sun in the UK in 2020, which he lost – the judge in that case ruled an article published by the newspaper about abuse allegations against Depp was “substantially true”.
Heard’s lawyers also say that there were “evidentiary errors that severely prejudiced” the actress during the US trial.
The US trial verdict
After six weeks of testimony, the Depp v Heard court case came to an end on 1 June, with the jury finding that a 2018 article Heard wrote for the Washington Post, about her alleged experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse, was defamatory towards Depp.
Heard won on one count of her counter-suit, successfully arguing that one of Depp’s attorneys defamed her by claiming her allegations were “an abuse hoax” aimed at capitalising on the #MeToo movement.
The jury awarded her $2m (£1.5m) in damages.
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Following the US trial verdict, Depp has been throwing himself into his music career, performing with Jeff Beck and announcing a tour for his rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires in 2023.
He also made a surprise cameo at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards – joking with the audience he “needed the work” as he was projected on stage dressed as an astronaut.
Sky News has contacted representatives for Depp and Heard for comment.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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