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Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial: Depp returns to witness stand

Closing arguments are set for Friday, after which the jury will begin deliberations.

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

Johnny Depp returned to the stand Wednesday as a rebuttal witness as the defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard nears its conclusion.

Depp described the experience of listening to Heard's testimony in the case as "insane" and issued a blanket denial of 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."

Depp was also asked to testify about statements made by his former attorney, Adam Waldman. Heard is countersuing Depp over three statements Waldman made to the Daily Mail in 2020 accusing her of orchestrating an abuse “hoax.”

British model Kate Moss, who dated Depp in the 1990s, also testified Wednesday morning and denied that Depp ever pushed her down the stairs, as Heard had suggested on the stand. Her video testimony lasted about five minutes, and she was not cross-examined.

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

Closing arguments are set for Friday, and the jury will begin deliberations that day.

Former TMZ producer recalls obtaining video of Depp smashing cabinets

Court adjourns; jury dismissed for the day

Court adjourned at about 4:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, allowing the jury to be dismissed about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled.

Circuit Judge Penney Azcarate alerted the jury that the trial was still on schedule to have closing arguments Friday morning. Rebuttal witnesses for Heard's countersuit would be allowed to testify Thursday.

Depp witness testifies to Heard photo data

Bryan Neumeister, an expert witness called by Depp's legal team, offered testimony explaining data in photos of Heard with injuries allegedly as a result of abuse from Depp.

Neumeister testified that he was not offering an opinion as to whether the photos were intentionally altered. He told the court that he examined EXIF data, which stands for exchangeable image file.

Looking at three different photos that have been used as evidence in the case, Neumeister said the photos appeared the same but were in fact different sizes.

"These photos will not digitally fingerprint with each other. In other words, forensically they don't match," Neumeister said.

The metadata for the photos stated that they went through Apple's "Photos 3.0" app, Neumeister said.

Upon cross-examination, Heard's attorneys noted that Neumeister had no degree or certifications in computer science. Her legal team also noted that Photos is a software that also operates as a "photo sorter" where photos can be saved.

"Did you find any evidence of any modification of EXIF metadata of any photograph in this case?" Heard's attorney asked.

"There's no way to answer that scientifically because ... the evidence we're given," Neumeister said. "There's no way to positively or negatively answer that."

Neumeister noted the only way to be able to fully authenticate the photos would be to have the phone it was taken on because the extractions were taken from computer backups.

Heard's lawyers ask Depp about 'Aquaman'

Heard's attorneys presented a text message Depp sent to his sister on June 4, 2016, in which he wrote, "I want her replaced on that WB Film!!!" referring to the "Aquaman" franchise.

Depp said he did not try to get Heard fired from "Aquaman," which was released in 2018. Heard was cast in September 2015, according to Depp's testimony.

Depp said he did at one point speak with executives at Warner Bros. Pictures about Heard. "I reached out to them because I vetted her," he said, again denying that he tried to get her fired.

Depp's legal team previously accused Heard of earning her role in the famed "Aquaman" film due to her relationship with Depp.

"I got myself that role by auditioning," Heard said during cross-examination.

Heard has said her role in the franchise's sequel was reduced following domestic violence allegations.

Walter Hamada, president of DC Films for Warner Bros. Pictures, said in a video deposition Tuesday that there were some conversations about potentially recasting Heard's role in the "Aquaman" sequel due to concerns around her chemistry with Jason Momoa, who played the titular role.

Depp questioned about texts presented by Heard's legal team

Depp denied sending a series of texts presented by Heard's legal team Wednesday.

In the texts presented, Depp referred to a woman's genitalia as "RIGHTFULLY MINE!!!!"

"Should I not just bust in and remove its hinges tonight???" the text read. Another text read: "I want to change her understanding of what it is like to be thrashed about like a pleading Mackrel....I NEED. I WANT. I TAKE."

Depp said, "That's not anything I've ever said or written."

Depp accused Heard's legal team of tampering with the texts. "You could have written that up last night," he said.

When pressed further by his own attorneys, Depp said he doesn't know who the woman named in the texts was and has no recollection of them.

"I don't have that kind of hubris or expectation," he said of the texts. "That's quite grotesque."

Heard's attorney questions Depp's testimony on Australia incident

Heard's attorney Benjamin Rottenborn questioned Depp on his earlier Wednesday testimony on his alleged fight with Heard in March 2015 in Australia, comparing it against his testimony in the United Kingdom libel trial.

Earlier in the day, Depp was shown a picture of the residence in Australia and asked whether there was a wall-mounted phone. He denied there being a wall-mounted phone there.

When asked again about it by Rottenborn, Depp repeated that he didn't recall a phone.

Rottenborn then read testimony from Depp during the libel litigation he filed in the U.K. against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife beater."

Depp said there was a wall-mounted phone in the bar area of the home in that testimony. When asked if he repeatedly smashed that phone, Depp responded in the U.K. testimony that it was "possible."

"'If that is the case, I do not believe I spent very much time on the phone. I remember ripping the phone off the wall,'" Rottenborn quoted in court from Depp's U.K. testimony. "That was your testimony, correct?"

"It seems it would be, yes," Depp said.

Depp has alleged that Heard threw two vodka bottles at him during the March 2015 Australia argument, which he said resulted in glass severing the tip of his finger. Heard has disputed that characterization, testifying that she believed Depp might have severed his fingertip while smashing the wall-mounted phone.

Heard's legal team questions Depp over images from honeymoon

Heard's legal team questioned Depp about the photos presented by his attorneys that show him with Heard on their honeymoon, in which Depp appears to have a black eye.

Prior to the lunch break, Depp had alleged that Heard hit him on the Orient Express. When asked how he got the injury shown in one photo by his legal team, of Depp and Heard in the Orient Express dining car with chefs from the train, he replied, "Ms. Heard hit me."

Heard's legal team showed another image of Depp taken in July 2015 before Heard and Depp began their train honeymoon on the Orient Express. In the image shown, Depp is holding a child and has what Heard's lawyers said looks like the "exact same mark under your left eye" as in the image on the Orient Express.

"That is the exact area, but a side light will cause that as well," Depp said. "The lens in front, the light on the side will cause that occipital bone, I believe, to appear sunken."

Heard's defense asked, "Just like lights on the side of the train car?"

"That was in fact in the dark," Depp said of the train image. "And I had people on either side of me, so I don't see how light was on either side there."

In response to another image Heard's team showed, Depp claimed it "looks like my eyes have been photoshopped."

Court returns with Depp cross-examination

Court returned at 2 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday. Heard's legal team began cross-examining Depp.

Court adjourns for lunch

The trial broke for an hourlong lunch at about 12:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday after Depp's attorneys finished their questioning of him.

Cross-examination of Depp is expected to take place when the case returns after lunch.

Depp issues blanket denial of Heard's testimony

Shortly before the court broke for lunch, Depp described the experience of listening to Heard's testimony in the case as "insane" and issued a blanket denial of her allegations.

"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."

Depp went on to say that while no human is perfect, he has never committed sexual battery or physical abuse.

"This is not easy for any of us, I know that," Depp said. "But I did get here and I did tell the truth."

Depp denies Heard's accusation that he pushed Kate Moss

Depp was asked to address prior testimony from Heard regarding a rumor that he had pushed his former girlfriend Kate Moss down the stairs.

"Ms. Heard took the story and turned it into a very ugly incident, all in her mind," Depp said. "There was never a moment where I pushed Kate down any set of stairs."

Moss testified earlier Wednesday denying that Depp pushed her, saying she had fallen down a set of stairs while dating Depp in the 1990s. Depp reiterated that Moss fell, saying it was while they were in Jamaica.

He said he had left their bungalow before Moss when rain started to come down, like a "monsoon."

"Then I remembered looking and seeing Kate coming out the door, and there were three little wooden stairs, and she slipped," Depp said. "Her legs went out, and she landed directly on her coccyx. ... She was obviously physically in pain. She was hurt, she was crying, so I ran over and grabbed her to make sure she was all right. That's it; that's the whole story. But then the rumor of it, I had never heard a rumor of that before Ms. Heard."

Heard said in earlier testimony that the rumor came to her mind during a fight in which she ended up hitting Depp. She testified that her sister, Whitney Henriquez, was present and standing at the top of their penthouse staircase when Depp struck her sister.

"I hadn't landed a blow and I, for the first time, hit him," Heard said. "Like actually hit him square in the face. But he didn't push my sister down the stairs."

Henriquez confirmed in her own testimony that she was present during the fight and that Depp struck her.

Depp alleges Heard hit him during honeymoon

Depp alleged that during his honeymoon with Heard in 2015, when the two took the Orient Express from Bangkok to Singapore, Heard hit him.

"There were times where it was very agreeable, very nice," he said of the trip. "And then there were times when ... something had become dissatisfactory for her, and she would start the ... rant. The blooming of a fight ... would be on deck there."

During one fight, Depp said Heard hit him in the face. "But ... it all ended and then everything got fine again and we'd go to dinner," he said.

The court was shown several images of Depp with Heard on their honeymoon, in which he appears to have a black eye, which Depp described as "a bit of a shiner."

When asked how he got the injury shown in one photo of them in the Orient Express dining car with chefs from the train, he replied, "Ms. Heard hit me."

During her testimony last week, Heard said Depp assaulted her in their sleeper car during the honeymoon.

She said they argued on the last night of the trip because Depp wanted her "permission" to break his sobriety. She testified that he had already been drinking "brown liquor" that night.

She alleged that he slapped her in their compartment and then held her by her neck.

"It was a small narrow sleeper car, and there were two beds, one on each side," Heard said. "He had me up against the wall while he's standing on the floor in between the beds, and I was on the bed kind of half kneeling, half standing, trying to get his arms off my neck. And he was squeezing my neck against the railway car for what felt like a very long time."

Depp did not acknowledge Heard's testimony in which she alleged he slapped her and squeezed her neck on the honeymoon but has previously testified that he has never struck a woman in his life.

Depp addresses his ex-lawyer's 'hoax' statements

Depp denied seeing any statements about Heard made by his ex-attorney to the Daily Mail ahead of the story's 2020 publication.

Adam Waldman, who previously represented Depp, claimed Heard's allegations of abuse were a "hoax."

The argument made by Depp's legal team is that Heard failed to prove that Waldman acted with "actual malice" when accusing her of creating an abuse "hoax." Heard also failed to prove that Waldman acted on behalf of Depp in making the statements, Depp's attorney Benjamin Chew said Tuesday.

"There is no such evidence on the record that Mr. Depp directed or otherwise authorized Mr. Waldman to make the three alleged defamatory statements," he said Tuesday.

On the stand Wednesday, Depp said the first time he saw the Daily Mail statement was in August 2020.

"It just seemed like a lot of word salad to me," he said of Waldman's statement.

Depp returns to the witness stand

Johnny Depp was called as a rebuttal witness Wednesday.

Depp previously testified as a witness in April, spending multiple days on the stand.

Heard’s attorney questions witness on conversations with Depp

Heard's attorney Elaine Bredehoft cross-examined Shannon Curry, an expert witness called by Depp's legal team, questioning Curry on her qualifications and conversations with Depp.

Curry diagnosed Heard with borderline and histrionic personality disorders, which was refuted by Heard's own expert witness, who said she diagnosed Heard with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"And you talked to Mr. Depp for three to four hours before taking on the role of assessing Ms. Heard and deciding whether she was suffering from any distress?" Bredehoft asked.

"I did not talk to Mr. Depp; I was talking to his legal team, and he was there to observe," Curry said.

Curry was later asked about whether she heard an audio file that was recorded when Depp and Heard were still a couple, in which Depp told Heard he thought she displayed borderline personality disorder.

"I do recall at some point he suggests that she might have that diagnosis," Curry said.

Bredehoft then questioned Curry on her qualifications, noting that Curry is not board-certified, and her testing process. She asked Curry about the choice not to administer the "structured clinical interview" for the DSM-5 evaluation.

Curry said she disagreed with Bredehoft's characterization that it was the "gold standard" for accurate diagnosis, particularly in a forensic setting.

"It's a good one, for treatment settings especially," Curry said.

She later noted that she had time constraints in her evaluations of Heard and tried to adjust to fit the limited time frame allotted to her.

"I had determined that creating forms of those questions would be a better use of the time. … Then I further deduced that adding on the structural clinical interview would probably be unproductive given that I had limited time and needed to use the best, most reliable methods for getting information in that time," Curry said.

Witness disagrees with Heard PTSD diagnosis

Shannon Curry, a witness called in Depp's defense, rebutted the testimony of Dawn Hughes, who earlier in the trial said Heard had post-traumatic stress disorder.

Curry, a clinical psychologist who spent 12 hours with Heard, said Hughes did not administer the proper testing to arrive at her PTSD diagnosis.

"As I said, in any sort of forensic context, a person being evaluated is going to have major incentive to present in a way that benefits the outcome of your case," Curry said. "So you always approach the examination with, I believe Dr. Hughes said, a healthy dose of skepticism. But that alone is not enough. ... We have to administer very comprehensive objective tests."

Curry specifically objected to Hughes' use of a PTSD checklist.

"That is a screening instrument only," she said.

Hughes, a clinical psychologist whom Heard’s legal team previously called to the stand, testified that she diagnosed Heard with PTSD as a result of what she described as intimate partner violence experienced during her relationship with Depp. She spent 29 hours with Heard, testing her using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, or CAPS-5.

Kate Moss says Depp never pushed her down the stairs

British model Kate Moss testified for Depp's defense, saying Depp never pushed her down the stairs while they were dating.

Heard brought up a rumor she heard that Depp had pushed Moss down the stairs at one point, testifying that she worried he'd do the same to her sister during an argument.

Moss, who dated Depp from 1994 to 1998, said she fell down the stairs once when she was following Depp out of a room.

"As I left the room, I slid down the stairs and I hurt my back," Moss said. "And I screamed because I didn't know what had happened to me and I was in pain. And he came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention."

Moss further claimed that Depp never pushed or kicked her during their time together.

Court returns with Kate Moss testimony

Court is back in session Wednesday morning, with Depp's legal team calling Depp's former girlfriend Kate Moss to testify.

Male domestic violence survivors say they feel the Depp-Heard trial is a turning point

As Johnny Depp’s defamation case against Amber Heard nears its conclusion, some men who say they have experienced domestic violence pinpointed a defining moment in the trial that, for them, felt pivotal in changing what it means to be a male survivor. 

“When I initially heard [about the case], I was a little shocked. I was like: ‘Wow. Who would’ve thought this could happen to Johnny Depp?’” recalled Tony Enos, a Philadelphia pop singer who said he survived domestic violence. 

Enos, who also works as a counselor to other men who have survived domestic violence, said seeing a man who is perceived to be as powerful, wealthy and famous as Depp claim that he endured domestic violence has made him feel less alone.

“The awareness is everything,” Enos said. “Men can be survivors of [domestic violence] and interpersonal violence, too.”

NBC News does not normally identify victims of domestic violence, but Enos gave his permission to use his full name. 

Read the full story here.