Uh, permission to deal with the witness as hostile? The cross examination of Amber Heard lastly started on Monday afternoon, and it began off SO combative!
Johnny Depp‘s lawyer Camille Vasquez started by urgent Amber on the divorce cash she pledged to charity — however has by no means given.
As it’s possible you’ll recall, proper after the couple’s divorce in 2016, Amber made it clear she was not after Johnny’s cash by declaring she would give the entire $7 million she was attending to charity. Each cent. As a result of, as she confirmed as soon as once more on the stand, she was “by no means focused on Johnny’s cash”. She testified on Monday:
“I didn’t care concerning the cash. I used to be informed if I didn’t conform to a quantity it might be overturned, we’d by no means settle. I took far lower than what they had been providing and what I used to be entitled to.”
She pledged half to the American Civil Liberties Union and must Kids’s Hospital LA, two nice non-profits that would all the time use an enormous donation like that. The factor is… she by no means gave all of them the cash.
Associated: Did The ACLU Write Amber’s Op-Ed?
Late final month ACLU lawyer and COO Terence Dougherty was lastly pressured to confess — after being subpoenaed by Depp’s workforce — that Amber by no means gave them the $3.5 million. He testified that finally they acquired $1.3 mil, simply over a 3rd, and $500k of that got here from her boyfriend on the time, billionaire Elon Musk. Not solely did she cease paying, however as soon as they broke up, Elon stopped paying, too. Dougherty confirmed they haven’t heard from Amber since 2019.
It’s unclear how a lot she’s donated to the Kids’s Hospital, however final yr a letter was unearthed that their Affiliate Senior VP despatched to Amber in 2019 saying they’d solely gotten $100k — and asking after the opposite 3.4 mil she’d pledged.
So how a lot has she truly given? Vasquez dug to seek out out, and it didn’t go nicely. She acknowledged level clean that Amber had not donated the $7 million, to which the Aquaman star responded:
“That’s incorrect.”
No joke: Vasquez laughed, balking on the reply. She then rephrased her query:
“Sitting right here in the present day, Ms. Heard, you continue to haven’t donated the seven million greenback divorce settlement to charity, isn’t that proper?”
Amber wouldn’t give in, responding — talking on to the jury:
“Incorrect, I pledged the whole lot of the seven million to charity and I intend to meet these obligations.”
Vasquez tried a number of occasions to interrupt, mentioning that she was not answering the query. She rephrased once more:
“Sitting right here in the present day, you haven’t donated the seven million {dollars} — donated, not pledged, donated — the seven million greenback divorce settlement to charity?”
Amber equivocated, explaining — as soon as once more on to the jury:
“I take advantage of pledge and donation synonymous with each other… That’s how donations are paid.”
Depp’s lawyer identified these are NOT synonymous with each other — one is a promise, the opposite is a achievement — and held the actress’ ft to the hearth, stating:
“Respectfully, Ms. Heard, that’s not my query. As of in the present day, you haven’t PAID $3.5 million of your personal cash to the ACLU, sure or no?”
Amber lastly relented, saying:
“I’ve not but.”
Vasquez requested once more:
“And as of in the present day, you haven’t paid $3.5 million of your personal cash to the Kids’s Hospital of Los Angeles?”
Amber responded, throwing in her excuse for by no means having paid:
“I’ve not but. Johnny sued me.”
Vasquez lastly laid it out once more, asking angrily:
“In order of in the present day, you haven’t donated — PAID — seven million {dollars} of your divorce settlement to charity, proper?”
Amber answered:
“I’ve not been capable of fulfill these obligations but.”
Whoa! See the total, contentious change (under)!
Wow. Rattling. We’d all sort of figured that out already over the previous few months, however let’s not breeze previous the truth that’s sort of a bombshell right here. It was how she all the time took the legs out from underneath his workforce’s declare that she was extorting him for cash. That may’t presumably be true as a result of she didn’t even preserve the cash, she gave it to charity.
Amber straight up lied greater than as soon as about this. She stated in a 2018 interview on a Dutch speak present:
“Seven million {dollars} in complete was donated — I break up it between the ACLU and the Kids’s Hospital of Los Angeles. I needed nothing.”
And she or he testified underneath oath to the UK excessive court docket throughout that 2020 libel trial — which Johnny misplaced — that she had donated your complete quantity.
Now her protection is twofold — one is that she makes use of the phrases “donate” and “pledge” interchangeably. Which is NOT a authorized protection. The second is that Johnny sued her, so immediately she couldn’t afford the cash. However… he didn’t sue her till March 2019. Why didn’t she pay the cash earlier than then? In 2019, the Kids’s Hospital was already saying they hadn’t heard from her since 2016. That doesn’t add up.
[Image via Law&Crime Network/YouTube]
