Lisa Wilkinson’s lawyer is shut down for demanding 39,823 pages of Bruce Lehrmann’s phone records

Lisa Wilkinson’s lawyer has been locked out of court for trying to access 39,823 pages of Bruce Lehrmann’s phone records, dating back to 2017 – in the latest twist in the former political operative’s defamation battle against Channel 10 and news.co. ouch.

Federal Judge Michael Lee labeled the request of the TV star’s team a “fishing expedition” with “no apparent relevance” when reading his reasons for denying the application during an interim hearing in Mr. Lehrmann’s lawsuit at the Federal Court on Thursday.

The phone records were obtained by the Australian Federal Police during an investigation into Brittany Higgins’ allegations that he raped her in Parliament House in 2019. Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.

The phone data includes not only his messages, but apps he’s opened and pages he’s visited, right down to website cookies stored on his phone.

“This is not some kind of wandering investigation into everything Mr. Lehrmann thought or said,” Judge Lee said.

Judge Lee said some of Lehrmann’s phone records were relevant, but not for six years. Above, Lehrmann in court last week

Ms Wilkinson’s lawyers attempted to argue that the data was relevant to Mr Lehrmann’s “state of mind” when he was charged with rape and in the following months.

Judge Lee acknowledged that some of the information was likely relevant, but not all six years.

Mr Lehrmann is suing Wilkinson, both news outlets, and journalist Samantha Maiden for libel over a TV interview and an online article, both published on 15 February 2021, in which Ms Higgins claimed a ‘male colleague’ had her in Parliament House in 2019 raped.

He was not mentioned in Ms Higgins’ interview with Lisa Wilkinson on The Project or in the article on the website, but claims his identity would have been known in political circles.

However, Thursday’s interim hearing is not about whether he has been defamed.

It is to try to determine whether Mr. Lehrmann is allowed to sue after the legal term of 12 months for alleged defamation.

Applicants normally have one year from the date of publication to file a libel suit. Mr. Lehrmann waited two years to file the libel suit.

His lawyers think it is unreasonable that he filed a lawsuit within the first year.

Wilkinson, news.com.au and Channel Ten have opposed the extension.

Respected defamation lawyer Sue Chrysanthou appears in court for Lisa Wilkinson

They will argue that it was reasonable for Mr. Lehrmann to start a defamation case within the first year after the allegations against him were aired.

Mr Lehrmann was represented in court on Thursday by Matthew Richardson SC, who told the court it was unreasonable for him to start defamation lawsuits while facing a criminal trial before a jury.

Mr Richardson referred to evidence given at last week’s interlocutory hearing where Mr Lehrmann said under cross-examination that he had ‘made up’ information in text messages to his ex-girlfriend Greta Sinclair while watching The Project in attorney Warwick Korn’s office on Feb. 15.

He told the court that he lied to placate her because she was distraught.

On Thursday morning, Mr Richardson told the court ‘so what’ if he made up conversations to make his partner feel better.

In those texts, Mr. Lehrmann told her that he had two lawyers and that he could potentially make “millions” in a future libel case.

Mr Richardson told the court on Thursday: ‘My claim is that of course he tried to tell his girlfriend and friends that he would be fine, that he wasn’t going to jail, that he wouldn’t be prosecuted. So?’.

Mr Lehrmann was called to the witness stand for the first time last week, during the first day of the hearing.

He described his “outrage” when he first watched The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson’s interview in the chambers of his lawyer Warwick Korn on February 15, 2021.

The viewing came after a six-hour meeting in Mr Korn’s office to explain the article published earlier that day on news.com.au.

Ms Higgins (pictured) said the phone call she recorded with then Employment Secretary Michaelia Cash was the ‘weirdest’ phone call she had ever had.

Last week, Ten’s lawyer, Matthew Collins, sought to establish whether Mr Lehrmann had told Ms Sinclair exactly what Mr Korn said during their protracted meeting: ‘What you were doing was faithfully sending simultaneous messages to Ms Sinclair? ‘

Herr Lehrmann interjected: “They were not simultaneous.”

Dr Collins said: ‘I caught you because you said (Solicitor Warwick) that Korn had contacted you…’

Mr. Lehrman interjected again: “It’s hard to remember the exact nature of the conversation—I didn’t tell her the exact advice Mr. Korn told me for fear it might upset her.”

Dr. Collins continued, “You made up rules from your lawyer.”

Mr. Lehrmann agreed, “To appease her, yes.”

The court heard Mr Lehrmann was ‘quite intoxicated’ during a six-hour meeting with Mr Korn, during which time they watched the interview with The Project.

After his cross-examination, court documents were made public with all the texts he had sent and received on the day the news broke.

A message log showed a series of messages Mr. Lehrmann sent and received later that evening following his meeting with the lawyer.

Mr. Lehmann texted his friend four consecutive texts, saying “need bags” and “let’s get it done.”

Further texts said ‘no one has work tomorrow’, another indicated someone ‘paid’ and another message said ‘let’s light it’.

He then texted another friend to say “come here, it’s fine,” followed by another saying, “How many bags?”