Amber Heard officially files motion to appeal verdict in Johnny Depp defamation trial

Nearly two months after Amber Heard lost the trial against Johnny Depp and was ordered to pay her former husband in the defamation lawsuit, the actress filed a motion to appeal the verdict in Johnny Depp's highly publicized defamation trial against her.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Heard's legal team cited that the "court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment" as the reason for the filing. "We are therefore appealing the verdict," her team wrote in a statement on Thursday. "While we realize today's filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice."

In response, a representative for Depp told E! News, "The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the six-week trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp, in multiple instances. We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand."

This comes one week after Judge Penney Azcarate denied Heard's request for a mistrial over an issue involving one of the jurors seemingly not being the one summoned for jury duty. The judge said no evidence of fraud was found among the jury and noted that Heard's team had weeks to speak up about the error rather than wait until after an unfavorable verdict.

Amber Heard's filing comes nearly two months after a Virginia jury ruled that she had defamed Depp in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Although she never mentioned the Pirates of the Caribbean actor by name, Depp's attorneys argued in court documents in March 2019 that Heard concocted the story in hopes of generating "positive publicity" and to "advance her career."

The six-week long trial ended with jury siding with Johnny Depp, awarding him $10.4 million in damages. Heard also won part of her countersuit and was awarded $2 million.

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