{"id":1458963,"date":"2022-04-30T11:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T15:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458963"},"modified":"2022-04-30T11:29:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T15:29:39","slug":"aclu-wrote-amber-heards-domestic-violence-op-ed-to-coincide-with-film-release-hasnt-received-promised-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aclu-wrote-amber-heards-domestic-violence-op-ed-to-coincide-with-film-release-hasnt-received-promised-donation\/","title":{"rendered":"ACLU Wrote Amber Heard\u2019s Domestic Violence Op-Ed To Coincide With Film Release, Hasn\u2019t Received Promised Donation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Faclu-wrote-amber-heards-domestic-violence-op-ed-to-coincide-with-film-release-hasnt-received-promised-donation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458963&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1240305603.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provided damaging testimony against actress Amber Heard on Thursday in her ongoing defamation battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp.<\/p>\n<p>ACLU\u2019s general counsel Terence Dougherty testified that his employer actually ghostwrote Heard\u2019s 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence and timed it to coincide with the release of her movie, \u201cAquaman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI recall there was a conversation for optimal timing,\u201d Dougherty said in response to a question from one of Depp\u2019s attorneys about ensuring the op-ed would come out \u201cjust after Aquaman release.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Emails released in court show ACLU communications strategist Robin Shulman wrote the first draft of Heard\u2019s op-ed in November 2018, one month before it was published, the Daily Mail <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10763863\/Elon-Musk-paid-500k-Amber-Heards-1-3M-donation-ACLU-court-hears.html\">reported<\/a>. Shulman told Heard in a message that she tried to \u201cgather your fire and rage\u201d and turn it into an op-ed. Dougherty was asked in his deposition whether that \u201crage\u201d was related to Depp, but said it was related to \u201cgender-based violence issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shulman also messaged Heard to tell her that ACLU\u2019s \u201clawyers should review this for the way I skirted around your marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jessica Witz, another member of the ACLU communications team, told Heard that she wanted \u201cto make sure nothing was said in here that puts you in jeopardy with your [non-disclosure agreement\u201d that she signed after her divorce from Depp.<\/p>\n<p>Heard\u2019s legal team then edited the op-ed to make sure it didn\u2019t make obvious connections to Depp. The ACLU was also in charge of pitching the op-ed to various news outlets and considered The New York Times and Teen Vogue before settling on the Post.<\/p>\n<p>Gerry Johnson, also part of the ACLU communications team, emailed colleagues to suggest timing the op-ed around the premier of \u201cAquaman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince draft turned out pretty strong and Aquaman slated to do large numbers I\u2019m wondering what you think about it?\u201d he asked in the email, according to the Mail.<\/p>\n<p>In a December 11, 2018, email, Witz told her colleagues that Heard\u2019s team had provided a final draft that \u201cneutered much of her marriage and domestic violence.\u201d Later, Witz informed her colleagues that Heard wanted to restore mention of her restraining order in the article, but it was not included.<\/p>\n<p>Stacey Sullivan, yet another member of the ACLU communications team, pitched the op-ed to Washington Post editor Michael Duffy, writing in an email: \u201cHey Michael, wondering if we might interest you in an op-ed by Amber Heard \u2018Who [sic] as you may recall was beaten up during her brief marriage to Johnny Depp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dougherty also testified that Heard has not paid the organization the $3.5 million she publicly promised she would.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/johnny-depp-wins-motion-to-force-aclu-to-reveal-whether-amber-heard-paid-the-millions-she-promised-after-divorce\">reported<\/a> in July 2021 that Depp\u2019s attorneys successfully lobbied a judge with the New York Supreme Court to force the ACLU to prove whether Heard followed through on her pledge to donate half of her divorce settlement from Depp to the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Depp and his attorneys long believed Heard never followed through on her 2016 promise. The Daily Mail <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9844843\/Johnny-Depp-WINS-motion-forcing-ACLU-reveal-Amber-Heard-donated-7M-divorce-settlement.html\">reported<\/a> that the Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles \u2014 the other charity to which Heard had promised a donation \u2014 had only received $100,000 of the promised $3.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>At Depp\u2019s defamation trial against Heard last week, the court learned that not only did the ACLU only receive $1.3 million of the money Heard promised to give them, but that she only contributed $350,000 herself. Another $100,000 came from Depp, and $500,000 is believed to have been donated on Heard\u2019s behalf by billionaire Elon Musk, who dated Heard for a year after her divorce from Depp, Deadline <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2022\/04\/johnny-depp-amber-heard-elon-musk-aclu-1235012179\/\">reported<\/a>. Dougherty said that payments stopped after 2018. \u201cWe reached out to Heard starting in 2019 for the next installment of her giving and we learned that she was having financial difficulties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Musk, in a 2016 email to the ACLU, told them that Heard\u2019s donation would be made in installments over 10 years, but she never signed an official pledge form stating so.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <u><a href=\"https:\/\/utm.io\/ueuP8\">Become a member now and join our mission<\/a><\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provided damaging testimony against actress Amber Heard on Thursday in her ongoing defamation battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp.ACLU\u2019s general counsel Terence Dougherty testified that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":1481086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}