June 8, 202207:35
Johnny Depp's lawyers called any suggestion that there was a coordinated social media campaign to smear Amber Heard during their defamation trial "utterly baseless" and "categorically false" on TODAY Wednesday, in their first public comments since the trial.
"That is utterly baseless," attorney Ben Chew told Savannah Guthrie, adding that the claims were "absolutely absurd."
Chew and fellow attorney Camille Vasquez were asked if Depp or anyone with his team paid for or encouraged support for Depp and negativity toward Heard on social media.
"Categorically false," Vasquez said.
Depp was awarded $10.4 million in damages by a jury on June 1 after three days of deliberation following a six-week trial. The jury also awarded Heard $2 million after finding a statement made by a member of Depp's legal team to be defamatory.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star received a huge outpouring of support on social media and from fans in person gathering outside the courthouse during the trial. Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft said on TODAY last week that she believes it affected the jury.
“There’s no way they couldn’t have been influenced by it, and it was horrible,” she said. “It really, really was lopsided.”
June 2, 202205:03
Chew and Vasquez responded to Bredehoft's claims on Wednesday.
"No, I don't think there's any reason...
PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar instructed officials to prepare a defamation lawsuit against "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published" on Israel. Israel wi...