Law&Crime Sidebar - BONUS EPISODE: The FBI, Australia & Amber Heard

Episode Date: July 9, 2022

In this special edition of Sidebar, Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy lays out the investigation into allegations that Amber Heard perjured herself in court in 2016 in Australia. Government officials have enlisted the help of the FBI to determine whether Heard lied when pleading guilty to producing false paperwork related to bringing her dogs, Pistol and Boo, into the country. LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Amber Heard's legal troubles are far from over. Law enforcement in Australia is investigating Hurd for allegations that she committed perjury during a court proceeding over her two dogs back in 2016. I'm Anjanette Levy and welcome to this special edition of Law and Crime Sidebar Podcast, where we are going to tell you all about this investigation and lay it all out for you and how it started.

Now, the FBI is assisting the Australian government in its perjury investigation of Amber heard. And this has been going on for quite some time. Apparently, the FBI involvement has been discussed on YouTube for a while now. I found some tweets from back in 2021 of people like the umbrella guy on YouTube. Jackson Bryan have been talking about this on their podcast, the real Laura B. So these people have known about this. But we got some information about it and thought that's pretty interesting. And they're doing this because the Australian authorities can't just get on a plane and come over here and start interviewing people. It just doesn't work that. way. So we thought we would lay this case out from the very beginning and tell you exactly how it all started, because people ask me about it all of the time. What's going on with the perjury investigation? What's going on with the dogs in Australia? So let's start at the very beginning. This all started in April of 2015 when Herd and Depp flew to Australia on a private jet. Johnny Depp was filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie there. And this was two months after the incident where his finger was severed. Well, on the trip, Herd

did not declare the dogs upon entering the country, which is a huge problem in Australia. Australia has very strict biosecurity laws to prevent diseases like rabies and other things from spreading throughout the country. So when a dog or a cat from the United States enters Australia, it has to be declared. It has to have the proper paperwork. And the animals have to be quarantined for 10 days upon entry. These dogs, Pistol and Boo, you've probably heard all about them if you followed the Virginia case, were discovered when someone saw them at a groomer and people were talking about them being Johnny Depp's dogs. While Australian officials demanded that the dogs be removed from the country or be euthanized. If we start letting movie stars, even though they've been

the sexiest man alive twice, to come into our nation, then why don't we just break the laws for everybody? So it's time that pistol and boo bugged off back to the United States. Johnny Depp flew pistol and boo back to the United States on a private jet to keep them from being euthanized. And this was something that even came up when he was on the Jimmy Kimmel show later that year. Did you smuggle the dogs into the country? No, the dogs were, we were under the impression

that we had all the paperwork done for the dogs. We were there with the dogs in front of everybody. There might have been other things smuggled. And someone from Entertainment Tonight also asked Amber Heard about the dogs. And how are the dogs? Are they good? Yes, they're good, despite attempts by certain rogue, thug, Australian government officials, they are all right. A month after that interview, in July 2015, those Australian officials that she called rogue thugs,

while they charged Amber Heard with illegally importing pistol and boo. The following April in 2016, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of falsifying travel doctor, documents, and she blamed the incident on sleep deprivation, jet lag, and her former assistant, Kate James. She in depth also recorded and released an apology video. Australia is a wonderful island, with a treasure trove of unique plants, animals, and people. It has to be protected. Australia is free of many pests and diseases that are commonplace around the world. That is why Australia has to have such strong biosecurity laws.

And Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. disrespect Australian law, they will tell you firmly. I'm truly sorry that Pistol and Boo were not declared. Protecting Australia is important. Declare everything when you enter Australia. Now, the entire tale of Pistol and Boo going down under seemed to be put to rest. That is, until the UK trial in 2020. Now, that was the trial for Johnny Depp's libel lawsuit against the Sun newspaper, where they called him a wife beater. And his former estate manager, Kevin Murphy, submitted a witness statement in that trial. He said that Hurd had actually asked him to contact her former assistant Kate James and asked James to lie under oath for her. Murphy didn't do that

and instead submitted a statement claiming he thought that Kate James had taken care of that paperwork for the dogs before Hurd had fired her. Now James testified in the Virginia trial. You'll probably recall this if you followed it. And she did not care for Amber Hurd one bit. You could tell in her demeanor. And she said that Herd actually fired her right after she married Johnny Depp. And in the UK trial, Kate James submitted a witness statement in which she said she was outraged when she found that Amber Hurd had blamed her in court for those dogs entering the country without the proper paperwork. So that's when Australia's investigation into whether or not Amber Hurd committed perjury started. And it's been underway for some time. And of course, there's been a pandemic and all of these

things. But last October, there was a senator for the Commonwealth of Australia, and he seemed incensed during a hearing, and he questioned officials about why the case wasn't moving forward. And why is it taking so long? That's all I want to know. In fact, do I need to have a Senate inquiry on it? Senator, there's nothing to hide. It is an active investigation. Senator, we... I know it's a damage. It's going to take 12 months. How can it take, sorry, how can it take 12 months. We know the evidence that was there. Then they came, the celebrities thought that they're above Australia's biosecurity laws and we know Barnaby Joyce or Minister Joyce

had his little meltdown and good on him. Okay, whatever. No, this is cut and dried. What's taking so long? Well, Senator, it's only cut and dried if we can get a conviction and we can only get a conviction if we work with our partners at the AFP and the Director of Public Prosecutions and with international partners. As much as we might like to pursue this matter, we have to go in the queue behind all the other matters that those organisations are dealing with and that our international partners are dealing with.

But I think you can take it as read that, as Mr Timson's outlined, we're pursuing the matter and we don't intend to go away on it. We will continue to pursue it. Mr Tong is making the point that effectively the individuals, associated with this matter all live overseas and we are therefore reliant or the

AFP are reliant upon their ability to work with foreign co-elaborating bodies in relation to the issue and we at the department are obviously reliant on the AFP to take this forward so we understand your interest and concern we all are and we will continue to encourage those authorities to press on the matter as quickly as they And that's where the FBI comes in. The Department of Agriculture, water and the environment is being assisted by the Australian federal police and prosecutors in this investigation. So the AFP asked the FBI to assist since the witnesses involved in this all live in the United States. Some actually live in the UK as well, but the FBI can't really do anything about that. So that's really

where things stand with this investigation. The Australian government, as recently as this past Sunday told me that this investigation is still ongoing. They won't offer any further comment only that the case is still being investigated. And so they won't even comment on whether or not the FBI is involved, but we know that they are. So there's no timeline on when this investigation could be complete. So we will keep you posted on it and we will continue to check in on it. We also have more written about this on law and crime.com and we really lay out why Australia has such strict rules about importing animals and things like that. So thank you for joining us for this special edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. You can listen to us and watch us on Apple, Google, Spotify,

YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcasts. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and we'll see you next time. crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.