Linda Reynolds and Brittany Higgins defamation trial: day six

Linda Reynolds’ attorney responded to a letter sent by Bruce Lehrmann’s team on Tuesday after the senator described him as “shady” in court.

Ms Reynolds has long maintained she tried to help Ms Higgins and claims her posts damaged her reputation.

He said Ms Reynolds “had wonderful intuition… she thought Lehrmann was a shrewd guy”.

Four days later, Ms Reynolds’ team received a letter from Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, claiming that the term “cunning” implied he was “a deceitful, corrupt, fraudulent and dishonest character”.

In the letter, the term ‘shifty’ was described as a ‘character assassination’.

Lehrmann’s team also questioned evidence Reynolds presented on Monday when he said he had lied about being friendly with former ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis in 2019.

Lehrmann is not a party to the current defamation proceedings nor is he a witness.

Daily Mail Australia can now reveal that Mr Bennett responded to Ms Burrows later that day, pointing out that her letter was dated incorrectly.

(Pictured below: Linda Reynolds with her lawyer, Martin Bennett, outside the Supreme Court of Western Australia; Zali Burrows outside the Federal Court in Sydney)

Mr Bennett wrote: ‘I refer to your emailed letter to Ms Ross from my office on 6 August 2024, enclosing your letter which (for reasons unknown) is dated 8 August.’

He explained that court proceedings are subject to privilege, meaning Ms Reynolds was free to describe Lehrmann in any way she wanted without fear of prosecution.

“Judicial proceedings enjoy absolute privilege,” he wrote.

‘The reference to Senator Reynolds describing her client as “shrewd” was read into the notes of Deputy Commissioner Leanne Close, who recorded the conversations on 4 April 2019.’

He then referred to his client’s testimony about Lehrmann’s apparent connection to the former ASIO Director-General.

Mr Bennett said the information came from notes taken by Ms Reynolds’ former chief of staff, Fiona Brown, in 2019, just after the relevant conversations took place.

“The evidence about Mr Lehrmann claiming to be a friend of Mr Duncan Lewis is evidence supported by contemporaneous notes taken in 2019 by Ms Brown,” Bennett wrote.

‘It was one of the factors that Senator Reynolds took into account when firing Mr. Lehrmann.

‘The assumption that these comments are not relevant to this proceeding is a false assumption.

He then said Ms Reynolds would not “fact-check” her testimony with Lehrmann, adding: “Every single claim contained in your letter is categorically rejected.”