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Did Amber Heard donate $7M to ACLU? Johnny Depp wins motion to reveal truth

Lawyers for Johnny Depp had filed the petition to get the documents, if any, that proved Amber Heard had donated the cash she received after the former couple's explosive break-up in 2016

Fans of Johnny Depp finally have something to celebrate after he won his court battle against ex-wife Amber Heard, to find out if the latter stuck to her promise and donated her $7 million divorce payout to charity, as she claimed during her libel case, last year. 

Lawyers for the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star, 58, filed a petition in New York Supreme Court for the American Civil Liberties Union to hand over documents proving Heard stuck to her pledge of donating the cash she received after the former couple's explosive break-up in 2016. At the time, she vowed to split the settlement between two charitable organizations – the ACLU and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. However, Depp's team believes that the charitable gesture was a sham. 

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The judge's ruling

According to Daily Mail, Judge Arthur Engoron has granted 23 of the 24 requests in the actor’s "motion to compel." As a result, ACLU must now produce the paperwork relating to the 'Aquaman' actress' charitable contributions. However, Depp's motion to request to see documents relating to the actress’s role as a ‘brand ambassador’ for the ACLU was rejected.

The judge ruled 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 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."

Was Amber Heard lying?

Depp’s victory comes after the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles revealed in January this year that they received only $100,000 of the promised $3.5 million "gift" promised by Heard. At the time, the ACLU refused to cooperate, compelling Depp to bring on the motion against the organization to end their "outrageous stonewalling."

The actress has boasted about the charitable giveaway not only in media interviews but as evidence in her testimony in a London court, last year, during a defamation case that Depp had brought against the UK's Sun newspaper. The media outlet had branded Depp a "wife-beater" in one of their pieces. Depp's reputation received a thunderous blow after he lost the case as the presiding judge agreed with the publication's depiction of the actor, calling it "substantially true." 

In a witness statement dated February 26, 2020, Heard stated: "I remained financially independent from him [Depp] the whole time we were together and the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity." While deciding the case in The Sun's favor, Judge Andrew Nichol cited the gesture, writing, "Her donation of the $7 million to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger." If Heard is found to be lying about doing charity, it could give Depp an upper hand in a separate $50 million defamation suit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, against his ex-wife, accusing her of creating a 'hoax' image of herself as a domestic violence survivor for a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post. 

'Elon Musk pays anything she wants'

Following the ruling, Depp's fans took to social media to celebrate the news. "Give this man back his movies he made them worth watching!!! N this lady I relle don’t care Johnny is a great actor n he should get his movie roles back." one of them said, while another wrote, "Yes yes yes we all know she did not donate the money." A third commented, "I mean .... we all know that she did not donate .... but to see it in black and white will be fun ...However, I would not be surprised by altered documents ... you can´t trust them." The next remarked, "They'll say she donated. Her dog Elon Musk pays anything she wants."

One more reacted with "Spolier alert, She didnt!!" A commenter tweeted, "This is where her undated & unsigned pledge form miraculously showed up @ londons permission to appeal hearing. The thing is ACLU helped her write the Op-ed so should be a defendant & they tried to insert theirselves into the case as a friend of the court!! They cannot be trusted." Another said, "Heard slandered the hell out of Depp, I think he deserves some vindication." A person pointed out, "I’m glad Johnny finally got a win. I think the courts have done him so dirty regarding his domestic violence case with Amber."