Elon Musk paid for half of Amber Heard's donations amid Johnny Depp divorce

Elon Musk has once again been dragged into Amber Heard’s defamation case with ex-husband Johnny Depp, with the court hearing that Musk actually donated to charities on behalf of Heard after she failed to complete promised donations to charities.

According to the court testimony of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) general counsel Terence Dougherty, cited by People magazine, Heard had promised $3.5 million in donations to the charity with the money she received from divorcing Depp.

However, ACLU claimed in court that she has not completed the donations, and in fact, a huge sum of the money donated actually came from other sources, including a $500,000 donation from Musk.

Dougherty said in his deposition that Heard only paid $350,000 of the promised $3.5 million directly, with ACLU receiving one direct cheque of $100,000 from Depp, $500,000 from a fund at Vanguard, understood to be from Musk.

When Depp’s lawyers asked Dougherty, “She has not donated $3.5 million as of today to the ACLU, true?" he replied, “True.”

He also said that Musk had sent ACLU an email saying that Heard’s payments would come in instalments over a 10-year-old period.

When asked why Musk was "representing this on behalf of Ms. Heard," Dougherty said he thought it was because he had a prior relationship with the organization. Musk and Heard were also understood to have dated at the time.

The last payment came in 2018, after which ACLU says they “learned that she was having financial difficulties.”