Johnny Depp trial: ACLU believes Elon Musk paid $500k of Amber Heard's pledged donation

Elon Musk is said to have donated half a million dollars to American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Aquaman actor Amber Heard's name. On Wednesday, amid Johnny Depp's ongoing defamation trial against Amber Heard in Fairfax, Virginia, Terence Dougherty, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of ACLU testified about donations that  organisation has received from and on behalf of former couple. His virtual testimony was recorded in month of December 2021. 

Elon Musk paid half a million dollars to ACLU

Dougherty's testimony came in response to Heard's 2016 statement where she said that she was splitting her $7 million Depp divorce settlement money equally between Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and ACLU. However, Depp later had stated that he had sent ' first of multiple installments' to actor's chosen charities. Dougherty said that of $1.3 million donated, Heard had given $350,000 directly, while $100,000 was contributed by Johnny Depp and $350,000 came from an investment fund. 

It was also same year that Depp and Heard's divorce was finalised and latter started dating Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Recently, Dougherty testified that ACLU has received a $500,000 donation from a dor-advised fund located at Vanguard, which he 'believed was a fund set up by Elon Musk'. He said that based on emails with Musk, ACLU understood that Heard's $3.5 million donations would be given over 10 years. Heard's last donation of $350,000 was in month of December 2018 and she has t paid more money since n. ACLU is still short of $2.2 million of total promised amount. 

Additionally, during trial, text messs were also shown where Heard had ackwledged to her former nt that she never really loved Musk. Several reports came out in August 2017 suggesting  pair had broken up.

Furrmore, in December 2018, Heard's op-ed in Washington Post was published anuncing that she had taken on a role as an ACLU ambassador on women's rights. Dougherty also testified that ACLU lawyers- David Cole, national legal director who has argued before Supreme Court numerous times, had helped draft op-ed. 

Im: AP