According to People, Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked the court to dismiss the verdict in her defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp because there was insufficient evidence to sustain it.
Heard’s legal team claims that Depp’s $50 million defamation case against her is the result of an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2019 in which she discusses being in an abusive relationship but leaves out the Pirates of the Caribbean actor by name. The filing argues Depp “proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false.”
Depp was awarded $10.35 million in damages, compared to Heard’s $2 million, and Heard’s legal team objected, saying such a disparity was “inconsistent and irreconcilable” if the jury finally found that both parties had defamed the other.
“Mr. Depp presented no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she was abused,” the filing reads, per Variety. “Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for actual malice, and the verdict should be set aside.” One day after the verdict, Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, appeared on the Today show and expressed a desire to appeal.