Elon Musk has been ordered to turn over his private messages to Amber Heard in Johnny Depp’s defamation case against the actress.
Depp filed a subpoena on Tuesday asking Musk to submit all of his communications with Heard relating to her allegations of physical abuse or domestic violence against the actor.
Court documents obtained by The Blast specifically requested correspondence from on or around May 24, 2016, the day Heard claims Depp assaulted her in their home.
The award-winning actor filed a $50million lawsuit against his ex-wife in March, alleging that she defamed him by writing in a Washington Post op-ed that she was the survivor of domestic abuse.
She never named him in it but Depp claims that because their bitter divorce was so public, it inferred he had been violent towards to her – something he says is a lie.
In the lawsuit Depp alleged that Heard was cheating on him with Musk throughout the majority of their marriage.
Elon Musk has been ordered to turn over his private messages to Amber Heard in Johnny Depp’s defamation case against the actress
Depp’s lawyers hope the messages will prove the actor’s claims that Heard was cheating on him with Musk during their marriage
Depp filed a $50million lawsuit against his ex-wife in March, alleging that she defamed him by writing in a Washington Post op-ed that she was the survivor of domestic abuse. Heard and Depp are pictured together in January 2016
The information listed in the subpoena includes ‘conversations, telephone calls, letters, emails, memoranda, reports, telegraphs, faxes, exhibits, drawings, text messages, and any other documents which confirm or relate to the written or verbal exchange’.
Musk was also asked to turn over all ‘electronic, digital, or any other recorded material whatsoever’.
Several witnesses in the defamation case have testified that Musk went to Heard and Depp’s home on the day of the alleged assault.
During a deposition last month, Trinity Esparza, who worked for the apartment building, testified that she saw Musk there on the morning of May 24, 2016. She said Depp was out of the country at the time.
A security guard at the building, Alejandro Romero, said that Musk had visited Heard at the penthouse ‘several times a week’ before the alleged incident.
Musk has maintained that his relationship with Heard didn’t begin until after she divorced Depp.
‘Elon and Amber didn’t start seeing each other until May 2016, and even then it was infrequent. Their relationship didn’t become romantic until some time later,’ his reps said in a statement.
Musk has not publicly responded to Depp’s subpoena and it is unclear if he intends to comply.
Depp filed a subpoena on Tuesday asking Musk to submit all of his communications with Heard relating to her allegations of physical abuse or domestic violence against the actor
Musk has maintained that his relationship with Heard didn’t begin until after she divorced Depp. The couple are pictured together in April 2017
The tech billionaire and the actress were first romantically linked in July 2016, about a month before Heard’s divorce was finalized.
The couple split in August 2017, citing their busy schedules, and rekindled their relationship in January 2018 before breaking up a second time a month later.
Depp has alleged that Heard and Musk began seeing each other much earlier, about a month after their 2015 wedding.
Heard hopes to defeat Depp’s defamation lawsuit by proving her allegations that her ex-husband is an alcoholic with drug problems who routinely kicked her, beat her and, at times, was so violent that she lost consciousness.
Depp denied those allegations and insisted that Heard was the violent one in their relationship, claiming that he needed to have his finger surgically reattached after she hurled a vodka bottle at him.
Heard’s lawyers have asked the judge to keep the entire case under seal because, she says, she does not want private details of their friends and families’ lives to become public which they inevitably will if they are submitted as part of the record.
Depp, however, says he has nothing to hide and wants to hash the entire thing out publicly.
Heard (left on September 20) hopes to defeat Depp’s defamation lawsuit by proving her allegations that her ex-husband (right on September 6) is an alcoholic with drug problems who routinely kicked her, beat her and, at times, was so violent that she lost consciousness