Donald Trump Jr boasts Johnny Depp win is end to ‘rabid feminist’ MeToo movement

Many conservatives have celebrated verdict

Conservatives are celebrating Wednesday’s verdict in the highly publicised defamation lawsuit between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, in which Mr Depp won $15m in damages.

“Believe all women... except Amber Heard,” wrote Donald Trump Jr, on social media.

The former president’s son said he hoped the defamation verdict against the “terrible” actress would “end the effective rabid femminist notion that all men are guilty before being proven innocent that we’ve seen as of late.”

On Wednesday, a seven-person jury found that Mr Depp was entitled to $15m in damages after Ms Heard implied he was abusive in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post. The jurors, five of whom were men, also found that Ms Heard was entitled to $2m for her counterclaim that one of Mr Depp’s lawyers defamed her by calling the abuse claims “fake” and a “sexual violence hoax”.

The trial quickly came to be seen as test of the staying power of the MeToo movement, and its emphasis on correcting the historical bias against believing women when they came forward with claims of sexual misconduct and other abuse at the hands of men.

Many on the right seemed to celebrate the trial as the end of the MeToo era, as did hordes of Johnny Depp supporters who clustered outside the Virginia courthouse and in huge numbers online, turning the sensitive material and abuse claims described in the case into a bizarre internet spectacle with competing hashtags and conspiracy theories.

A Twitter account belonging to the Republicans on the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee posted a triumphant photo of Mr Depp in costume as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter, meanwhile, said the verdict “ends the "#MeToo" movement.”

“I bet Amber Heard is wishing she hadn’t listened to her feminist friends,” Ms Coulter added.

Many others see the trial as yet another instance of a powerful man in Hollywood being able to silence credible abuse allegations.

Ms Heard said after the verdict she worried the decision would have a chilling effect on other women coming forward with abuse allegations.

“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” Ms Heard wrote in a statement following the verdict. “I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”