Amber Heard interview latest: Actor says ‘binder’ of evidence not allowed in Johnny Depp trial could have changed verdict

Heard’s decision to give her first post-verdict interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie is interesting – given the broadcaster’s husband’s links to Depp.

The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad explains:

In a text message Amber Heard claims to have sent to her therapist on 16 December 2015, she wrote:

“Johnny did a number on me tonight. I’m safe and with my support tonight but I need some real help. Can I come tomorrow.

“I called earlier because I thought I had a concussion and didn’t know if I should have called police. But I have a nurse close to me.”

The text message was part of what Ms Heard said was a trove of evidence that she claims helped prove her allegations of abuse by her ex-husband Johnny Depp but was not presented to the jury at trial.

Mr Depp denies ever abusing Ms Heard.

Jurors were not shown the text messages after the judge ruled them to be inadmissible.

They were shared with NBC’s Dateline by Ms Heard’s team for her sitdown interview with Savannah Guthrie.

An anonymous juror in the defamation trial said the revelation that Amber Heard didn’t donate her $7m divorce settlement to charity as she’d claimed was “a fiasco” in the eyes of the jury.

The male juror lifted the lid on deliberations in an interview with GMA aired Thursday and referenced a portion of the trial where Ms Heard was questioned about the $7m she claimed to have donated to charity following her divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016.

“She goes on a talk show in the UK,” he said. “The video shows her sitting there telling the host she gave all that money away.”

“And the terms she used in that video clip were ‘I gave it away’, ‘I donated it’, ‘it’s gone’,” he added. “But the fact is, she didn’t give much of it away at all.”

The Independent‘s Gustaf Kilander has the full story:

Amber Heard said she doesn’t blame the jury for siding against her in her defamation battle against Johnny Depp as she sat down with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie for her first televised interview since the verdict.

“I don’t blame them. I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor,” Ms Heard said.

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander has the full story:

Amber Heard was grilled by Savannah Guthrie about being “caught in a lie” over her pledge to donate her $7m divorce settlement to charity, in the actor’s first sitdown interview since her bombshell defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Ms Guthrie put Ms Heard on the spot over the discrepancies between her pledge and the actual payments made, questioning whether this raised doubts about her “credibility” among the jury.

“Do you think to the jurors sitting there that was you getting caught in a lie?” probed Ms Guthrie, whose husband works for Mr Depp’s legal team, in a clip from the interview aired Wednesday.

Ms Heard defended the furore over the charitable donation, saying that the trial was used to try to paint her as “a liar” and arguing that she shouldn’t have had to pledge her entire settlement in the first place for people to believe her accusations of abuse against her ex-husband.

The Independent‘s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

Amber Heard opened up to Savannah Guthrie about the protective measures that were implemented for her during the trial as Johnny Depp fans gathered outside the courthouse each day.

“Every single day I passed city blocks lined with people holding signs saying things that I couldn’t repeat on television,” she said.

“They had to establish barricades to protect me so I could drive into a protected entrance of the courthouse. Every single day that’s how I walked in the court.”

Further, she commented on her lawyers fighting to keep TV cameras out of the court.

The Independent’s Inga Parkel has the full story:

Amber Heard was grilled over audio that captured her “taunting” ex-husband Johnny Depp in her sitdown interview with Savannah Guthrie.

Ms Guthrie, whose husband worked as a consultant for Mr Depp’s legal team, probed Ms Heard about recordings played to the jury where she was heard “taunting” her then-husband about being a “victim of domestic violence”.

Ms Heard defended her comments saying she was speaking as “a person in an extreme amount of emotional, psychological and physical distress” while the TV host grilled her about Mr Depp’s allegations that she had been the “abuser” in their doomed relationship.

The Independent‘s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

Even before the verdict was handed down in the case, Johnny Depp had already won the war on social media.

“Social media has weaponized this trial,” Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR firm and author of book Crisis Averted, told The Independent.

“More people are drawing conclusions about guilt or innocence based on online curated content than they are the facts in the courtroom.

“And that could have serious consequences for all of us moving forward.”

The Independent‘s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

Ethics and journalism experts have said that Savannah Guthrie should not have interviewed Amber Heard given her husband’s connection to Johnny Depp.

Rebecca Aguilar, the president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told Business Insider that Ms Guthrie interviewing Ms Heard was a “confict of interest”.

“Ms Guthrie was transparent by letting viewers know her husband worked for the Depp legal team before her interview aired on the ‘Today’ show,” she said.

“Still, she could have avoided becoming part of the story by allowing another NBC anchor to interview the Depp team and later with Ms Amber Heard.

“Ms Guthrie should be far away from this story to show her viewers that she is fair, transparent, and ethical.”

The NBC host admitted last week that her husband worked as a consultant for Mr Depp’s legal team.

Ms Guthrie is married to Michael Feldman, a public relations consultant and one-time Democratic political adviser who worked on Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.

She made the disclosure about the connection last week when she interviewed Mr Depp’s attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew on the Today show.

“A quick disclosure, my husband has done consulting work for the Depp legal team, but not in connection with this interview,” she said.

Ms Guthrie also previously interviewed Ms Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft on the Today show the morning after the verdict was announced.

Amber Heard revealed her fear that Johnny Depp could sue her for defamation again during her sitdown interview with Savannah Guthrie.

“I’m scared that no matter what I do, no matter what I say or how I say it, every step I take will present another opportunity for this sort of silencing,” she said.

“Which is what I guess a defamation lawsuit is meant to do, it’s meant to take your voice.”

Of the claims she made that sparked her legal battle with Mr Depp, she added: “I took for granted what I assumed was my right to speak.”

Ms Heard was ordered to pay Mr Depp $8.35m in damages for defamation at their trial.

The Independent’s Megan Sheets has the full story: