Floyd Abrams Says Johnny Depp Would Easily Win Another Defamation Case Over Amber Heard’s ‘Today Show’ Interview
Constitutional attorney Floyd Abrams believes Johnny Depp could have another viable defamation case on his hands, following ex-wife Amber Heard’s post-verdict TODAY Show interview.
Abrams was a guest on the Wednesday episode of Law & Crime Sidebar (a project of Mediaite’s sister site, Law & Crime) and the topic of Heard’s recent interview took center stage.
Heard spoke with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and doubled down on her claims of abuse from Depp.
Host of Law & Crime Sidebar, Jesse Weber asked Abrams his take on another defamation case rising from that interview in particular.
“Anything from that interview, do you consider it to be defamatory, particularly her saying ‘not one other woman has come forward because look, what happened to me when I came forward with you,’ she’s implying that other women were abused by Johnny Depp, anything in her interview that’s defamatory?” Weber asked.
Abrams, the father of Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, replied, “All of it seems to be defamatory. I mean, every time she says or hints clearly enough that he engaged in misconduct, let alone beating up anybody and including herself it certainly is defamatory.”
“Is it libelous? If he were to sue I think he’d have a very, very good shot because you would start with the jury verdict, in the last case, which would be admissible, maybe not for what we call ‘The truth of it’ but for the fact that she knew that a jury had already disbelieved her, she knew that a court order had been entered in saying in so many words that the jury had found that essentially she had lied,” he continued.
Abrams believed, however, that it was in Depp’s best interest to ignore the interview altogether.
“In my view, Johnny Depp has, you know, a few alternatives, probably the wisest is not to do anything. She’s not getting good publicity out of this. And I don’t think he’s getting bad publicity out of it in light of the jury verdict, but yes, he could bring another lawsuit and it would start out a lot stronger than the one he already brought and won,” he added.
As the conversation continued, the news of Heard potentially writing a tell-all book came up.
“If she writes this book, what does she have to be careful about what she can say and not say about her experience, both in the trial and after?” Weber inquired.
“I think she has to be most careful about repeating what has been held to be libel,” Abrams said frankly. “And I would think her publisher would want to be and likely will be careful about how she describes that.”
Listen above via Law&Crime Sidebar.
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