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Amber Heard returns to the stand to defend her counterclaim

Judge Penney Azcarate released the jury around noon Thursday, explaining that they would begin deliberations after closing arguments are made Friday morning.

Live coverage on this blog has ended, please click here for the latest on the trial.

Testimony in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial concluded Thursday, with Heard returning to the stand to defend her counterclaim against her former husband.

Heard is countersuing for $100 million over statements made in the Daily Mail in 2020 by Depp’s former attorney Adam Waldman accusing Heard of orchestrating an abuse “hoax.”

Heard testified about the impact that Waldman's claims had on her, reiterating that she did not fake her abuse allegations.

Witnesses for Heard on Thursday included Julian Ackert, a forensic expert, and Dawn Hughes, a clinical psychologist who diagnosed Heard with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Depp had returned to the stand Wednesday as a rebuttal witness for his defamation claim. The actor described the experience of listening to Heard's testimony in the trial as "insane." He further issued a blanket denial of her allegations of abuse.

Depp’s attorneys brought forth a single witness Thursday, hand surgeon Dr. Richard Gilbert. Gilbert testified that he found it plausible that Depp’s severed fingertip could be consistent with a vodka bottle being thrown at him, which Depp accused Heard of doing in 2015.

His legal team rested its case shortly after, allowing Heard’s legal team to bring forth its own rebuttal witnesses.

Judge Penney Azcarate released the jury around noon Thursday, explaining that they would begin deliberations after closing arguments are made Friday morning.

Attorneys then broke for lunch and planned to return to go over jury instructions.

Testimony ends

Testimony in the Depp-Heard defamation trial came to an end Thursday.

Judge Penney Azcarate and attorneys on both sides will meet at 12:50 p.m. ET to hash out jury instructions before closing arguments Friday.

Azcarate sent jurors home for the day, noting that closing arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. ET on Friday.

There will be no deliberations Monday, which is a holiday, Azcarate added.

Heard denies ever faking bruises, photos

Upon a redirect, Heard's attorney asked her about accusations that she faked bruises and photos of the alleged abuse she said she suffered from Depp during their relationship.

Heard responded, "Absolutely not."

She also defended her inability to state immediately what date a photo of spilled wine was taken when questioned about it by Depp's attorney during cross-examination.

"It's easy to not know the context of a picture of spilled wine, because there are so many more important details, pictures, and also so much I didn't photograph," Heard said.

Benjamin Rottenborn, Heard's attorney, asked again what Heard suffered as a result of the statements that Depp's former attorney Adam Waldman made to the Daily Mail in 2020, in which he described her allegations of abuse as a “hoax.”

Heard referenced text messages from Depp in her response. Messages presented in court included ones in which Depp communicated that he wanted Heard to suffer "global humiliation" after she filed for a protective order.

"What you see in this courtroom is an echo," Heard said. "This courtroom and the other courtroom he dragged me into to do the same thing again. That's just an echo of the violence and the abuse that I suffered within our relationship."

"The campaigns to have me fired that blocking me to try to ruin my career," Heard continued. "The threats he's made to humiliate me globally are being lived out in real time — in front of you ladies and gentlemen for the past six weeks, and for the whole world since there are cameras here."

Heard defends statement on Kate Moss rumor

Depp's attorney Camille Vasquez pushed Heard on invoking Depp's former girlfriend Kate Moss by saying Heard didn't expect Moss to come in and testify.

Heard previously testified that she thought in the midst of an argument about a rumor that Depp had pushed Moss down a set of stairs. Heard said Depp assaulted her sister while they were on top of the stairs.

"Everybody who was around in the '90s, the early aughts, knew that rumor," Heard said. "I heard that rumor from multiple people. Of course that's what flashed through my head when my violent husband ... swung for my sister."

Moss gave a brief testimony Wednesday denying the rumor, saying she slipped and fell once during their relationship in the '90s but that Depp was not responsible. Depp also testified denying the rumor.

Heard was pushed further on the witnesses who came forward in support of Depp since the trial began.

"I know how many people will come and say whatever for him," Heard said. "That's his power. That's why I wrote the op-ed. I was speaking to that phenomenon."

Judge admonishes audience to remain quiet

Judge Penney Azcarate threatened to clear the courtroom if she heard anything being voiced from the gallery.

Coming out of a short sidebar, Azcarate told the audience she wants "no words, no sounds at all coming from you."

"If I hear one more sound, I will clear the gallery and move to continue this testimony with no one in the courtroom," she added. "Understood? Good?"

Heard says she didn't leak video to TMZ

Heard denied Thursday that she leaked video of Depp smashing kitchen cabinets to TMZ.

Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez accused Heard of giving the celebrity website the footage, citing the testimony of Morgan Tremaine, a former TMZ producer, from Wednesday. Tremaine did not testify that Heard leaked the video.

“You are very wrong about that,” Heard said. “If I wanted to leak things, I could have done it in a more effective way, a lot sooner.”

Heard said she took the video but did not leak it. She also said she does not know how TMZ obtained it.

In his testimony, Tremaine said, "The video was sent in through our email tip line." He said TMZ owns the copyright to the video.

Heard details harassment, death threats since 'hoax' allegation

During her rebuttal testimony, Heard was asked to explain how she has suffered following statements that Depp's former attorney Adam Waldman made to the Daily Mail in 2020, in which he described her allegations of abuse as a "hoax."

"I am harassed, humiliated, threatened every single day, even just walking into this courtroom," Heard said.

Heard testified that people have told her about their desire to kill her and put her baby "in the microwave." She told the court that Depp promised her that if she left him, he'd make her "think of him every single day that I lived."

“I receive hundreds of death threats regularly, if not daily,” Heard said. “Thousands, since this trial has started. People mocking, mocking my testimony about being assaulted.”

Heard said in the years since leaving Depp, she has had panic attacks and that her friends and intimate partners have had to learn "unspoken rules" about how to touch her or keep from triggering her.

Charity work, Heard said, was an outlet for her to channel her pain into "providing a voice to other people." But Heard said since the allegations of her faking her abuse, she has been unable to have a career and that people are unable to associate with her because of threats and other attacks.

"Protecting the secret that I did, for as long as I did, has taken enough of my voice," Heard said. "Johnny has taken enough of my voice. I have the right to tell my story. I have the right to say what happened. ... I have a right as an American to talk about what happened to me, to own my story and my truth."

"I have that right," Heard said.

Heard returns to the stand

Heard was called back to the witness stand Thursday to testify as a rebuttal witness for her counterclaim against Depp.

Heard expert witness stands by PTSD diagnosis

Dawn Hughes, who testified for Heard's defense, was called back to the stand to further explain her diagnosis that Heard had post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hughes, who spent about 29 hours with Heard, is one of two clinical psychologists called in the trial to testify regarding her mental health. Shannon Curry, an expert witness for Depp, diagnosed Heard with borderline and histrionic personality disorders.

Curry disagreed with the PTSD diagnosis, testifying that she did not agree with Hughes' testing and that people with PTSD don't go hiking or have dinner parties as Heard does.

Hughes testified that this was a "myth and a misconception about individuals who are struggling with PTSD." Many people with the diagnosis might have impairments but go about their day even while struggling with symptoms, Hughes said.

"So I often talk about this as sort of walking around with a 50-pound bag of flour on their backs, just sort of trying to get through the day," Hughes said.

Heard also tested in the moderate area of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, Hughes said. This moderate diagnosis was used to dispute Curry's allegation that Heard exaggerated her symptoms.

Hughes also said Heard described her symptoms in a moderate and nuanced way.

"Amber Heard scored in a moderate range," Hughes said. "She did not exaggerate on this test. She could have said no, mild, moderate, severe and extreme. All of hers were either twos, ones or zeros."

Heard witness disputes prior expert on photo metadata

Julian Ackert, a forensic expert, was called as Heard's first rebuttal witness. He disputed testimony from an expert witness called by Depp's team Wednesday who said photos of Heard with apparent injuries were altered based on their metadata.

Depp's witness, Bryan Neumeister, testified that he examined EXIF data, which stands for exchangeable image file, and saw that some appeared to go through Apple's "Photos 3.0" app. Neumeister did not say whether the photos were intentionally altered but pointed to photos that appeared to be the same but were different file sizes.

Ackert said in his testimony that he had no reason to doubt the forensic authenticity of the photos he reviewed.

Ackert disputed Neumeister's testimony about the Photos application, noting that Apple devices create versions of photos as part of the synchronization process.

"So the photo that was originally taken traverses or gets synchronized to other devices by design of Apple and that synchronization process. It does not affect the metadata that we’re talking about here," Ackert said.

But file sizes and metadata can change for a photograph for actions that do not impact the visual appearance of a photo, Ackert said.

"My opinion is that for each of the photos … I actually found the equivalent original photo that did not have Photos in the EXIF metadata," Ackert said. "In other words, those are the photos that he was indicated he would have expected to see the iOS or the phone software version on those photos."

Upon cross-examination, Depp's attorney asked if Ackert could testify that all of Heard's photos were authentic.

"Based on the metadata that I have reviewed of the specific photographs I have reviewed, I can confirm that those are authentic, original photographs for the ones that Neumeister identified," Ackert said.

Depp's legal team rests its case

Depp's final witness testified Thursday morning.

Heard's legal team will now offer rebuttal witnesses for her countersuit.

Depp witness says fingertip injury could have been from a thrown vodka bottle

A hand surgeon, testifying for Depp, told jurors Thursday that the actor could have lost a fingertip due to a thrown bottle.

In his testimony, Depp claimed Heard had become enraged during their trip to Australia, throwing a bottle of vodka at him and severing his fingertip.

"I certainly believe that a vodka bottle, thrown from a distance against a hand that was resting on a marble bar, is more than sufficient force to result in this fracture and soft tissue loss," Dr. Richard Gilbert told jurors.

Court returns for final day of testimony

Court is back in session Thursday morning. Heard is expected to present rebuttal witnesses for her countersuit.

Thursday is the last day of witness testimony before closing arguments and jury deliberations begin Friday.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial: Summary and timeline

NBC News

Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard is nearing its end, with Circuit Judge Penney Azcarate alerting the jury Wednesday that the trial was still on track to have closing arguments Friday.

Get caught up with NBC News' summary and timeline of the trial so far.

Depp describes listening to Heard’s testimony as ‘insane’; Kate Moss testifies

NBC News

As the penultimate day of Johnny Depp's trial against ex-wife Amber Heard begins, here's what happened Wednesday.

Depp returned to the stand as a rebuttal witness. He described the experience of listening to Heard's testimony as "insane" as he denied her allegations of abuse.

“It’s insane to hear heinous accusations of violence, sexual violence, that she’s attributed to me, that she’s accused me of,” Depp said.

“I don’t think anyone enjoys having to split themselves open and tell the truth, but there are times when one simply has to because it’s gotten out of control. Horrible. Ridiculous. Humiliating. Ludicrous. Painful. Savage. Unimaginably brutal. Cruel. Um, and all false. All false,” he said.

British model Kate Moss, who dated Depp in the 1990s, also took the stand in a video testimony. She denied allegations that Depp had pushed her down the stairs. She was not cross-examined.

Other witnesses Wednesday included Shannon Curry, a clinical psychologist; Morgan Tremaine, a former employee of TMZ; and Beverly Leonard, a police officer who arrested Heard in 2009 in connection with an allegation of domestic abuse.

Court adjourned around 4:40 p.m. ET, meaning the jury was dismissed about 45 minutes ahead of schedule.

NBC News