Lawyers pressing Johnny Depp’s defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard painted their relationship as the opposite of what she’s described: Heard was the violence-prone aggressor, they said, who manipulated the “Pirates” star and often attacked him when he tried to avoid their escalating confrontations.
Depp’s attorneys had the first chance to present arguments to the jury on Tuesday, kicking off the trial that pivots on Heard’s op-ed published in The Washington Post in December 2018. Heard’s lawyers had a turn after a short break Tuesday morning, and each side was given a second round of statements in the split opening.