Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Johnny Depp has been granted access by a court to his ex-wife, Amber Heard’s phone records.
Depp plans to use the records to prove that Heard forged the injuries he allegedly gave her.
Depp is suing Heard for libel and claims that she doctored photos to make it look as if the Edward Scissorhands actor assaulted her.
Depp’s lawyer said: “Ms Heard’s counsel has repeatedly used these phony photographs at deposition.” He also claimed that the LAPD “disavowed the photographs” and “did not depict what they saw”.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor is suing over an article Heard wrote for the Washington Post in which she described being a victim of domestic violence, though she never mentioned Depp by name.
Heard has previously claimed that she suffered two black eyes, a broken nose and a broken lip at the hands of Depp.
The court ruled that Depp’s legal team can have an expert look at the phone to examine if the photos were fabricated.
In response, Heard’s attorney stated: “Amber Heard remains willing and able to support the authenticity of her evidence, and her IT forensics expert has cooperated in this effort. In sharp contrast, Mr Depp has been unable to produce even the audio tapes from which he leaked a partial out-of-context portion, much less any support for the authenticity of any of his evidence.”
Depp and Heard were married between 2015 and 2017. In November last year, Depp lost a different libel case against The Sun, which labelled him a “wife beater”.
The court found that the claim was “substantially true” and Depp was refused permission to appeal against the ruling.