Johnny Depp's motion to reject Amber Heard's $100 million defamation lawsuit is dismissed by judge

Amber Heard's legal team took a break from her defense and ultimately chose not to call Johnny Depp back to the stands.

A judge has rejected Johnny Depp's legal team's motion to dismiss ex-wife Amber Heard's defamation lawsuit.

Depp, 58, issued Hurd, 36, for $50 million in damages, accusing her of defaming him by writing a post alleging domestic violence allegations in 2018, although he did not give his name. Meanwhile, Hurd has filed a $100 million lawsuit accusing Depp of running a campaign to discredit him and his accusations of "falsehood" and "cheating" and boost his career and reputation.

After Hurd's team suspended its defense in the case on Tuesday, Depp's side is pressing for the actress' counterclaim to be dropped. Because the jury wasn't present, attorney Ben Chu told Fairfax, Va., that the basis for Hurd's counterclaim three public statements made by Depp's attorney Adam Waldman in 2020 could not be directly related Depp "participating" or "authorizing" have comments.

The Chu also claimed that Hurd showed no genuine malicious intent and claimed that Waldman carried out an investigation and believed that his "fraudulent" comments were accurate. (Waldman testified in this case, but he relied on the client's attorney's privilege in most cases. He did not deny a statement.

"There is no evidence that Mr. Depp even saw Mr. Waldman's statement until he was brought to justice," Chu said.

Hurd's attorney, Ben Rothenberg, argued why counterclaims should be settled. At one point, he said: "There is no reason to accept the invitation to attack this agency argument, on the actual malice argument. The evidence shows that he was not only Mr. Waldman's agent, Mr. Depp but also that the two conspired to accuse Amber of fraud. And falsify the evidence they believe supports their theory and whom they seek to reach.

Judge Penny Azkarate then read out his verdict on the matter and rejected the motion to reject the counterclaim. He said, "The jury can conclude that Mr. Waldman made this particular statement to a third party in favor of plaintiff [Depp] by negatively portraying defendant [Hurd] as the opposing party."