Depp and the Aussie politician in shaggy dog story, part two
AUSTRALIA’S deputy prime minister has reignited his two-year feud with Johnny Depp, saying the Hollywood actor could be investigated for perjury.
Barnaby Joyce, who has traded barbs with the US star ever since Depp illegally brought his two dogs, Pistol and Boo, into Australia, was responding to reports that Depp pressured one of his staff members to “take the fall” for his actions.
The accusation was made by Depp’s former business managers, who are locked in a bitter legal dispute with the actor.
In the latest documents filed to the court and obtained by People magazine, The Management Group (TMG) reportedly claimed the actor was “fully aware that he was illegally bringing his dogs to Australia” in May 2015.
“Depp falsely claimed to authorities and in public press interviews that the incident was a big misunderstanding because he supposedly believed his staff had obtained the necessary paperwork,” they said.
TMG also claimed that when Australian authorities challenged Depp about the dogs, he “pressured one of his long-term employees to ‘take the fall’”. Depp never faced charges, but his former wife, Amber Heard, paid a $1,000 fine last year after she pleaded guilty in Australia to a charge of falsifying documents over the alleged illegal importation of her two pet Yorkshire terriers into the country aboard a private jet in 2015.
When asked about the claims yesterday, Mr Joyce told ABC: “If the allegation is correct, there is a word for that – it is called perjury. That is another question that, if that was true, Mr Depp would have to answer for.
“It doesn’t matter if you think that you’re Mr Who’s Who of Hollywood, you’re going to obey our laws.”
Depp, 54, claims TMG cost him tens of millions of dollars. The firm retaliated with a suit saying it had repeatedly warned him about his excessive spending.
When the row over Depp’s dogs first broke in 2015, Mr Joyce, then agriculture minister, warned that the dogs would be killed or exported if they were not removed, declaring that “it’s time that Pistol and Boo b------d off back to the United States”.
After Depp apologised last year for breaking the country’s strict quarantine laws in a viral video, Mr Joyce took another dig at Depp.
“I don’t think he’ll get an Academy Award for his performance... he looked like he was auditioning for The Godfather,” he said.
Depp hit back by describing Mr Joyce as someone who “looks somehow, like, inbred with a tomato”, prompting the politician to joke: “I’m turning into Johnny Depp’s Hannibal Lecter. I’m inside his head. I’m pulling strings and levers.”
Lawyers have played down the chances of a perjury case.
Michael Cope, a prominent Brisbane solicitor, told The Guardian: “It wouldn’t be perjury.
“He didn’t get charged at all and if he’s not said anything to anybody – either in a courtroom or filling in a form where he’s provided a statutory declaration, or similar document, then I don’t see where he’s committed any offence.”
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