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Johnny Depp Wins Motion To Force ACLU To Reveal Whether Amber Heard Paid The Millions She Promised After Divorce

   DailyWire.com
Johnny Depp poses after the press conference to present the film 'The Minamata Photographer' at the fifth edition of the BCN Film Fest, on April 16, 2021, in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain).
Ana Belen Morant / Europa Press via Getty Images

Following her divorce from actor Johnny Depp in 2016, actress Amber Heard said she didn’t want the money from their divorce settlement and pledged to donate her $7 million to charity. Since then, people have wondered whether she ever followed through on her public announcement.

Now, one of the charities she promised money to, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will have to show whether it received any of the $3.5 million Heard promised. The ACLU had previously refused to say whether it received the money from Heard, so Depp went to court in an attempt to force them to reveal the truth.

He just won.

The Daily Mail exclusively reported that Depp’s attorneys had filed a petition with the New York Supreme Court to force the ACLU to prove whether Heard followed through on her pledge.

“Now a judge has granted 23 of the 24 requests in the actor’s ‘motion to compel’, meaning the organization must produce the paperwork relating to Heard’s charitable contributions,” the outlet reported. “The only thing Judge Arthur Engoron refused was a request for documents relating to the actress’s role as a ‘brand ambassador’ for the ACLU.”

Engoron ruled that Depp “has satisfied the initial burden of stating the circumstances of reasons underlying the subpoena … the ACLU has failed to demonstrate that the information sought it [sic] utterly irrelevant to the action …”

“Thus, for the reasons stated herein, the petition is granted and denied in part and respondents are ordered to comply with all subpoenas with the exception of … documents pertaining to Ms Heard’s role as a brand ambassador for the ACLU,” Engoron added.

Depp and his attorneys long believed Heard never followed through on her 2016 promise. In January, the Mail reported that the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles — the other charity to which Heard had promised a donation — had only received $100,000 of the promised $3.5 million.

The reason Depp filed the petition was that Heard had claimed she had no financial incentive to falsely accuse Depp of domestic abuse because she gave the money away. Had she not actually donated the money — and kept it for herself — she would have a financial motive to lie.

Depp had previously lost a libel case against Heard and the British tabloid The Sun, which painted him as a domestic abuser after Heard claimed he beat her during their marriage. As The Daily Wire previously reported, audio presented in the case showed Heard admitting to hitting the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t, uh, uh, hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you’re not punched,” Heard tells Depp in the recording. “I don’t know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you’re fine. I did not hurt you. I did not punch you. I was hitting you.”

At the time the libel suit was tossed, Depp’s attorneys called the ruling “perverse” and “bewildering,” pointing out the mountain of evidence the judge appeared to have ignored in arriving at his decision.

“Most troubling is the Judge’s reliance on the testimony of Amber Heard, and corresponding disregard of the mountain of counter-evidence from police officers, medical practitioners, her own former assistant, other unchallenged witnesses and an array of documentary evidence which completely undermined the allegations, point by point. All of this was overlooked,” said attorney Jenny Afia. “The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision.”

Among that “mountain” of evidence, The Daily Wire previously reported, was surveillance videos, eyewitness statements, audio, photos, and more showing that Depp was the real victim.

“One of the testimonies comes from Trinity Esparza, who was the concierge at the penthouse where Heard claims Depp hit her in the face. Esparza now questions how Heard received the mark on her face she claimed was from Depp, after reviewing surveillance footage from three days later, when Heard’s sister Whitney pretended to punch her in the face, according to court documents,” The Daily Wire reported.

Further, evidence suggested Heard attacked Depp while the actor was in bed and staged the attacks she claimed he committed.

“Unaware that members of Mr. Depp’s security team (including an 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department) were mere feet away, Ms. Heard falsely began yelling, ‘Stop hitting me, Johnny,’” Depp alleged in court documents. “The interaction culminated with Ms. Heard making false allegations that Mr. Depp struck her with a cell phone, hit her and destroyed the penthouse. There were multiple eyewitnesses to this hoax.”

While Depp has been dropped from major roles following Heard’s allegations, the actress — who, again, admitted to attacking Depp — has been cast in the upcoming “Aquaman 2” and is available for paid speaking gigs.

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