Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro read actress Amber Heard the riot act during Wednesday afternoon’s broadcast of “The Five,” arguing that she had done a disservice to women who had been the victims of domestic abuse.
Weighing in just hours after a Fairfax, County, Virginia, jury found in favor of actor Johnny Depp in the defamation trial between the two former spouses, Pirro said that her own experiences dealing with battered women had led her to believe from the outset that Heard was not the victim but the abuser in this particular case. She also said that, given the verdict, the jury appeared to have come to the same conclusion.
WATCH:
"Don’t give me this stuff with it’s a setback for women," @JudgeJeanine lets #AmberHeard have it in post-trial response. "You do not represent women, you represent the worst of women who try to falsely blame men and that is the end of it." pic.twitter.com/62zUuV1Bmg
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) June 1, 2022
Pirro began by criticizing Heard’s own post-trial complaint about how the verdict was a “setback for women,” and she made it clear that she disagreed.
“Here’s the bottom line, for this woman to say it is a setback for women I think she needs to understand one thing and that is that what she did was harmful to real victims of domestic violence,” Pirro said, noting that she had personally spent decades working with battered women.
“When she started it was clear that she was not the victim, she was the abuser — and Johnny Depp had lawyers who could take her on,” Pirro continued, going on to praise Depp’s legal team.
Pirro noted that Depp had effectively put his entire life on the line in an effort to save his reputation after Heard used him to paint herself as a part of the #MeToo movement.
“She was impossible to believe. I would tell the jury as a judge, if you find that one witness has testified falsely with respect to one fact, you are free to disregard their entire testimony,” Pirro explained. “This woman lied over and over again and I feel free to say that on television. She lied. She was a liar, she was the abuser and he was the victim.”
She concluded by pointing out just how high the bar was for Depp’s attorneys to prove not only that he had been “defamed” but that Heard’s intent had been malicious.
“That jury had to really see right through her to say she was malicious,” she said, referencing the jury’s award of $5 million in punitive damages. “Don’t give me this stuff with it’s a setback for women. You do not represent women, you represent the worst of women who try to falsely blame men and that is the end of it.”