Johnny Depp has to reimburse the ACLU after he acquired documents from them for his defamation trial.
Even though the trial is over, the saga of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard continues to drag on. Both Depp and Heard released statements following the court’s decision that Heard owed Depp $15 million in damages, and celebrities took sides in the wake of the verdict.
Now, it’s Johnny Depp who’s been ordered to cough up some cash. Depp’s legal team subpoenaed documents from the ACLU during the defamation case, and the ACLU claims that the process took them a lot of time and resources. The organization asked a judge to order Depp to reimburse them for their effort.
The ACLU said they were owed a whopping $86,000 for the work required to produce the 1900 documents Depp’s legal team requested. Depp’s lawyers balked at the price tag, calling it “exorbitant and unreasonable.” The judge seemed to agree, and ordered Depp to pay $38,000 instead. Depp’s legal team had initially gotten the ACLU involved with the defamation case in order to prove that Amber Heard had lied about donating half the money she got from her and Depp’s divorce to the organization.
While Depp’s been feuding with the ACLU, Heard has broken her silence about the verdict, appearing on a full-length special that aired on Dateline. She lamented the campaign of hate that arose on social media during the trial, saying, “Even somebody who is sure I am deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I am lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation… You cannot tell me that you think this has been fair.”
That said, she wasn’t shocked by the jury’s decision, knowing the cards were stacked against her. “I don’t blame them, I actually understand,” she said. “He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
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