House Judiciary Republicans account celebrates Johnny Depp verdict with Jack Sparrow GIF

The House Judiciary Committee’s Republicans’ Twitter account celebrated a jury in Virginia’s verdict that decided in actor Johnny Depp’s favour on Tuesday.

The jury in a defamation trial found that his ex-wife Amber Heard defamed Mr Depp in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post when she wrote “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse,” although she didn’t specifically name the actor.

In response, the committee for Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, who are on the minority of the committee and are led by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, tweeted out a GIF of Mr Depp’s character Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

The jury in a district court in Fairfax, Virginia found that Ms Heard defamed Mr Depp and awarded him $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. Mr Depp had sued Ms Heard for $50m for implying he abused her, to which she countersued for $100m.

Ms Heard for her part lamented the verdict in a statement.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women,” she wrote. “It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”