Johnny Depp and Amber Heard testify at the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Photo / AP
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard testify at the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Photo / AP
Missing texts, nude photos and Russian bots are among explosive claims exposed in previously locked documents from Johnny Depp's defamation trial against Amber Heard.
Over the weekend, documents seen by Daily Beast containing pages of evidence excluded from the trial that gripped the world were unsealed, providing new insight into Depp's hotshot legal team's strategy.
And it doesn't reflect too well on Team Depp.
It comes as Heard has filed to appeal against the jury verdict ordering her to pay Johnny Depp US$10 million in damages after the court found that she had defamed him in her 2018 Washington Post opinion piece on being a victim of domestic abuse.
Claims Depp wanted to submit nude photos as evidence
Ahead of the trial, lawyers for Heard moved to have a number of "irrelevant personal matters" excluded from the defamation trial.
The document read: "Mr Depp inappropriately seeks to introduce evidence of the following Irrelevant Personal Matters: (1) nude pictures of Amber Heard; (2) Amber Heard's sister Whitney's reality show video; (3) Whitney and Amber's past romantic relationships; (4) Amber's brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Mr Depp and Mr Depp attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Ms Heard was at one time an escort."
Heard's sister grilled over death of friend
An interview with Whitney Henriquez, Heard's sister, dated February 3, 2022, is included among the newly unsealed court documents.
During the deposition, Henriquez is asked about Heard's late friend "Logan," who died in a car accident as a teenager, which had a profound impact on Heard.
Lawyers had asked if Heard and Logan were romantically involved or ever fought, to which Henriquez clarified that they were just friends, and had not fought.
Depp's team went on to ask whether Heard was with Logan the day he died and/or was driving the car he died in, to which Henriquez said no.
Despite Henriquez insisting Heard was not present at the tragic incident, lawyers went on to probe her on whether Heard's driver's licence being suspended "had anything to do with the accident in which Logan died," to which Henriquez replied, "It had nothing to do with that."
Henriquez further testified that Heard had never hit, slapped, or thrown anything at her, adding, "I never said I was subjected to any violence because of Amber."
Johnny Depp has been close friends with Marilyn Manson for almost three decades. Photo / Wayne Drought
Marilyn Manson
Any "references to and evidence regarding Marilyn Manson" was removed from trial, with Depp's team arguing it would "smear Mr Depp under a guilty by association theory."
Manson's former partner Evan Rachel Wood has made several allegations of sexual assault against the goth rocker, including that he forced her to have sex while filming one of his music videos.
Included elsewhere in the documents were texts messages between Depp and Manson, born Brian Warner, in which the two men share insults of Heard.
In a 2016 text, Manson allegedly wrote, "I got an amber 2.0" and also "Lindsay just pulled an amber on me … please delete"
Depp responds, "I been reading A LOT of material on that and sociopathic behavior…it is f***ing real my brother!! My ex-c—t is goddamn TEXTBOOK!!!" according to the document.
Then Manson, in an apparent reference to an incident where the police were called to Depp and Heard's shared Los Angeles apartment in 2016, wrote, "I got a serious police amber type scenarios with L's family. I'm f***ing stressing. I don't know if you are back but I need asylum somewhere because I think the cops might be headed my way," the filing states.
Heard's lawyers alleged that Depp and Manson went on "drug binges" together, including in the days before the actress arrived in Australia and the two got in a now-infamous fight that ended with the actor losing the tip of his right middle finger.
Johnny Depp has been close friends with Manson for almost three decades.
More damning texts mysteriously 'deleted'
According to the unsealed documents, text messages Depp's former assistant Stephen Deuters sent Heard in 2014 relating to an incident where Depp had allegedly "kicked" Heard during a private jet flight, were deemed inadmissable in the Virginia trial, despite being presented in Depp's 2020 libel lawsuit in the UK, which he lost.
The texts from Deuters to Heard read: "If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, he would be appalled.
"I'm sad he does not have a better way to really know the severity of his actions yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I remember them in full, in full detail, everything that happened. He was appalled, when I told him he kicked you, he cried."
Depp subsequently texted Heard, "Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course I am sorry … I will never do it again … My illness somehow crept up and grabbed me … I feel so bad for letting you down." I
In messages retained by Heard, he apologised while calling himself a "f***ing savage" and a "lunatic."
But Depp's law firm, Brown Rudnick, could not find any record of the texts in Depp's iCloud, and looked into whether they may have been, in their words, "deleted".
The law firm ultimately determined they were "missing", but did not specify why.
Russian bots
Depp's lawyers fought to "exclude evidence of negative social media traffic and purported Russian 'bot' campaign regarding Ms Heard," according to the documents.
Motions to ensure "supposed misdeeds," including "Russian connections," from a member of Depp's legal team, Adam Waldman, never saw the light of day were also granted by the court.
Amber Heard plans to appeal against the verdict. Photo / AP
Questions Depp's photos and audio were doctored
According to Daily Beast, Heard's team argued that metadata from photos and audio submitted by Depp as evidence in the case proved they were manipulated.
The lawyers claimed photographs of Depp's bruises and scratches allegedly from Heard contained "Created and Modified" dates of years after the alleged incidents occurred.
They said the data "reveals the items were 'Modified' days before their production in this case"; that Depp "produced multiple partial audio recordings that begin and end in the middle of a sentence"; and that metadata "indicates the [audio] recordings were created in September 2015 and then modified in June 2016, and again one day before their production, but Depp only produced the modified version. This raises significant concerns of manipulation, alteration, and deletion."
Documents show Heard's team repeatedly requested the full audio of these conversations, but were denied.
Julian Ackert, the forensic expert who testified for Heard during the trial and confirmed photos of her bruised face allegedly at the hands of Depp were authentic, found that Depp's submitted photos contained "anomalies that call into question the authenticity of the multimedia documents".
Ackert, who was only questioned under cross-examination in the trial, said these included "instances where the date metadata, such as creation and date metadata, is either missing or is significantly after the alleged date of the incident. Missing creation dates and/or modification dates that post-date the facts can be a sign of digital evidence manipulation."
Witnesses Depp's team fought to block
While Ackert's testimony was blocked, Depp's team unsuccessfully moved for several of Heard's witnesses to be excluded from the trial.
These included the testimony of actress Ellen Barkin, who'd claimed Depp angrily threw a bottle in her direction while they were dating; Dr David Spiegel, a psychiatrist who testified on behalf of Heard about the alleged trauma inflicted by Depp; texts between Depp and his actor/pal Paul Bettany wherein Bettany suggested they submit Heard to a "drowning test" to determine whether or not she's a "witch," to which Depp replied, "Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead"; and audio of Heard telling Depp, "I had dumped you a f***ing week, week prior, a f***ing week prior after you beat the sh*t out of me."
However, the testimony of Dr Dawn M. Hughes, a psychologist who met with Heard for 29 hours over four sessions and determined that she suffered from PTSD as a result of "intimate partner violence" by Depp, was removed before the trial went ahead.
Heard's list of 'comparable actors'
Meanwhile, the documents outlined a pre-trial claim by Heard's team that the actress suffered economic losses in the range of "$47-50 million" over a "3-5 year period" due to defamatory statements made by Depp and his inner circle.
The claim featured a list of actors her lawyers felt were "comparable" to Heard in stature, including Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Zendaya, Ana de Armas, and Chris Pine.
Heard intends to appeal
Heard, 36, filed a "notice of intent to appeal" last Thursday in Fairfax County, Virginia, close to Washington DC where the blockbuster trial was heard.
Heard plans to appeal against the verdict, a decision on post-trial motions and "all additional orders and rulings by the trial court," the filing states, reported The New York Post.
Her attorneys have until September 4 to file the appeal motion laying out their arguments.
A Fairfax County jury sided with the 59-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor last month, finding that his ex-wife defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed piece on being a victim of domestic abuse.
The Aquaman actor won a US$2 million jury verdict against Depp on one of her claims that he defamed her.
Heard's appeal comes on the heels of a judge last week denying her bid for a new trial on multiple grounds, including that one juror prejudiced the outcome of the case.
In a statement on Thursday, Heard's team said it believes "the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment."
Depp's side, meanwhile, expressed continued confidence in their case.
"The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the six-week trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr Depp in multiple instances," a spokesman for the actor said in a statement.
"We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand."
