Camille Vasquez, who rose to fame representing Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Heard, joined NBC News as a legal analyst where she will work with Savannah Guthrie, whose husband consulted on the explosive 2022 case.
Vasquez, a partner at Brown Rudnick, rose to fame during the attention-grabbing case, emerging as a rising star in legal circles for pressing Heard during cross-examination. Depp won a $10.35 million judgement in June after the sensational six-week trial that featured shocking allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
Guthrie’s husband, Michael Feldman, consulted for Vasquez and other members of Depp’s legal team. But the NBC News anchor came under fire for failing to disclose the relationship between her husband and Depp’s legal team when she covered the trial, including during NBC’s special coverage of the verdict and an interview with Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredhoft.
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Guthrie famously remained silent about her husband’s ties to Vasquez as Bredhoft said she felt Depp’s legal team attempted to "demonize" her client.
Guthrie later disclosed the relationship with a casual mention during an interview with Vasquez and Benjamin Chew, who also worked on Depp’s legal team.
"A quick disclosure, my husband has done consulting work for the Depp legal team, but not in connection with this interview," Guthrie said before NBC aired the interview.
Less than a year later, Guthrie and Vasquez are colleagues at NBC News.
Vasquez made her debut for NBC News on Monday morning when she appeared on "Today" alongside Guthrie to discuss the latest developments in the University of Idaho murders.
Heard and Depp eventually settled his defamation victory for $1 million.
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NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, whose wife Allison Oppenheim has co-authored a series of children’s books with Guthrie, has a history of hiring candidates with ties to the network. Vasquez, like MSNBC’s David Fahrenthold, appears qualified for the gig despite ties to high-powered NBC players raising eyebrows.
In 2016, NBC News sat on the notorious 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women. At the time that NBC was debating what to do with the tape, Oppenheim was overseeing "Today," co-hosted by Billy Bush – who was also heard on the tape egging on Trump. Eventually, the tape was leaked from inside NBC to The Washington Post’s Fahrenthold, a friend of Oppenheim’s from Harvard University. NBC has long denied that Oppenheim leaked the tape.
Oppenheim was later promoted to president of NBC News and Fahrenthold was hired as an MSNBC contributor.
Fox News’ Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
