Bruce Lehrmann lashes out over Linda Reynolds’ brutal one-word description of him – as his lawyer points a foul-mouthed evaluation of the senator’s defamation trial

Bruce Lehrmann has lashed out at Linda Reynolds for describing him as ‘shifty’ throughout her defamation case towards Brittany Higgins – which his lawyer described as  a ‘Jerry Springer s**t present’.

Senator Reynolds is suing her former worker Ms Higgins over social media posts in 2022 and 2023 that allegedly implied she didn’t assist the younger Liberal staffer after Lehrmann raped her in 2019.

Ms Reynolds has lengthy maintained that she did attempt to assist Ms Higgins and claims Ms Higgins’ posts broken her repute.

The four-week listening to within the WA Supreme Courtroom started on Friday with Ms Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett delivering opening statements.

He mentioned Ms Reynolds ‘had marvellous instinct… she thought Lehrmann was shifty’.

On Tuesday, Ms Reynolds’ workforce was hit with a authorized letter from Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows claiming the time period ‘shifty’ implied he was ‘a misleading, crooked, fraudulent and dishonest character’.

Within the letter, the time period ‘shifty’ was described as a ‘character assassination’.

Lehrmann had beforehand supplied his providers as a witness to assist Ms Reynolds’ case, however that relationship seems to have fractured past restore – he has now demanded a public apology.

In keeping with the letter, Ms Reynolds hadn’t described Lehrmann as ‘shifty’ previous to the present defamation proceedings.

On Monday, Ms Reynolds gave proof in court docket saying Lehrmann had lied about his connections with former ASIO Director-Common Duncan Lewis.

The senator instructed the court docket she and her chief-of-staff Fiona Brown had reservations about Lehrmann’s future within the ministerial wing as a consequence of ‘his behaviour and odd issues he mentioned’.

‘Some individuals boast about issues or individuals they know or issues they do, and it was issues like that we had issues about.’

Talking about Lehrmann’s obvious connection to Mr Lewis, Ms Reynolds mentioned it  ‘wasn’t implausible’ as a result of he did have dealings with nationwide safety officers throughout his time working within the workplace of Lawyer-Common George Brandis.

She went on to say: ‘Fiona is aware of [Mr Lewis] so she contacted him straight and he had by no means heard of Bruce, in order that was not true.’

The letter mentioned: ‘Lehrmann denies claiming he was “mates” with Mr Lewis, however actually had many prior dealings with him and located him personable and pleasant.’

Lehrmann’s authorized workforce expressed concern that Ms Reynolds would proceed to make unfavourable character assassinations towards him.

‘He doesn’t want to be a part of the chaotic state of affairs (colloquially often known as a “Jerry Springer s**t present”), particularly in circumstances he doesn’t have standing for a proper of reply,’ the letter learn.

Ms Reynolds was requested to publish a public apology on X and Instagram.

She was additionally requested to make clear that Lehrmann ‘didn’t declare to be mates with Mr Lewis’.

In April, Federal Courtroom Justice Michael Lee discovered on a steadiness of chances that Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins on a sofa inside Ms Reynolds’ defence suite in Parliament Home in March 2019.

On the time, Ms Higgins and Lehrmann had been political staffers for Ms Reynolds, who was the minister for defence business.

Lehrmann has long-maintained that he didn’t rape Ms Higgins.

In Might, launched an enchantment to overturn Justice Lee’s findings with Ms Burrows as his instructing solicitor.