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On Friday, Johnny Depp was ordered to pay the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) $38,000 in production expenses for providing evidence that was used in the Fairfax, Virginia civil action. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that The ACLU was not due the $86,256 they requested.

Before the request for fees from the ACLU Depp won a defamation suit against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Attorneys argue production expenses

Attorney Jessica Meyers of Brown Rudnick was part of the team who represented Depp in the defamation suit. 

 On June 1st Meyers filed a motion opposing the payment of $86,256 in “expenses” requested by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Meyers said the ACLU's original request was "exorbitant and unreasonable."

The motion said, “Mr. Depp acknowledges that New York law provides for the reimbursement of reasonable production expenses to a non-party and does not oppose reimbursing the Respondents for such reasonable expenses; but Respondents seek reimbursement for expenses that go far beyond what was reasonably required to comply with the subpoena.”

"They [ACLU] were responsible for drafting and placing the op-ed that the Virginia jury just found to be defamatory to Mr. Depp," Meyers also claimed.

The ACLU's lawyer, Stephanie Teplin, said that the $86,000 was a reasonable amount since the Depp team requested thousands of documents over six years.

They argued that the requested fee was for the "considerable expense spent responding to onerous subpoenas served by Mr. Depp from an underlying action in which neither the ACLU nor any of its employees are parties," according to Teplin.

Newsweek reported that an ACLU spokesperson said, "We are pleased that the Court recognized that the ACLU complied with Mr. Depp's requests and did so at great expense."

Depp vs. Heard

After she and Depp divorced, Amber Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed that was co-written by the ACLU.  The article appeared in The Washington Post, with the headline, "I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change."

Heard was touted by the organization as an "Ambassador for women's rights, with a focus on gender-based violence."

She also publicly claimed in 2016 that she had donated her entire divorce settlement of $7 million to charity. Half would go to the ACLU. And half to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. 

A jury found that Heard defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean actor in the op-ed. And that she had not paid the charity pledges despite insisting she paid them. 

Depp is court-ordered to pay $38,000, less than half of what the ACLU originally requested. And Heard must pay $8.35 million to Depp in defamation damages.  Heard's attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, says that Heard does not have the funds to pay Depp or to appeal the verdict.