Who is Taylor Auerbach? Inside the colourful career of TV producer at the centre of bombshell twist in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case

A journalist expected to drop accusations in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten is no stranger to the hot seat – he has had it with Eddie McGuire in Millionaire Hot Seat.

Network Ten will throw a last-minute grenade into the high-profile civil case on Tuesday by asking the Federal Court to consider new evidence from Taylor Auerbach, 32, a former producer of Channel Seven’s Spotlight programme.

That evidence would be presented just two days before Federal Court Judge Michael Lee was to hand down his judgment in the lawsuit, which concerns The Project’s 2021 interview with Brittany Higgins.

It was during that interview that Ms Higgins claimed for the first time that she had been raped by an unnamed Parliament House staffer – an accusation Mr Lehrmann has always denied, with his criminal trial permanently suspended due to juror misconduct.

Should Judge Lee agree to hear the new evidence at a special hearing at 5pm today, Auerbach will be called to testify. But who is he?

Auerbach, 32, is a Sydney media identity who has worked for several major tabloid news outlets in NSW.

He was recently in the news amid a feud with Steve Jackson, a Channel Seven producer who until last week was on the verge of becoming NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s new spin doctor.

Two weeks ago, a bizarre report emerged claiming Auerbach paid $2,940 for Thai masseuses for himself and Mr Lehrmann last year using a Channel Seven credit card – with Jackson allegedly texting him with advice on how to complete the transaction could turn back.

Auerbach, who left Seven last year, lost his job at Sky News after the report was published and the commissioner later decided not to continue with Jackson in his new role despite no suggestion of wrongdoing.

It’s just a taste of Auerbach’s varied career. Auerbach made news before he became a journalist. He became the youngest winner of Millionaire Hot Seat in 2009 at the age of 18, earning $50,000.

Then a journalism student at the University of Technology, Sydney, Auerbach was promised a job at Channel Nine by presenter Eddie McGuire, but the chatter did not culminate in an actual job offer.

Auerbach appeared on Channel Seven, in the Herald Sun and the Macarthur Chronicle and on radio about the issue. He also took part in the 2010 cooking show, Come Dine With Me Australia, where he hosted a dinner party with a 1950s rock and roll theme.

At News Corp, Auerbach was considered a young reporter with news-breaking skills who once mounted a horse in regional Australia to go to a remote bush camp of an incest family.

In early 2014, Auerbach revealed that he had been close to high-profile former model Charlotte Dawson, judge on Australia’s Next Top Model, prior to her tragic death in February that year.

The same year, he worked briefly for Daily Mail Australia, before returning to News Corp and later working as a reporter on Nine’s A Current Affair. stories about neighborhood disputes, terrorists, a prisoner from Fiji and sports stars.

In 2019, Auerbach assisted Steve Jackson, then a reporter for The Australian, in securing an interview with ex-model and former fiancée of billionaire James Packer, Tziporah Malkah.

The interview took place at Malkah’s apartment on Christmas Eve and took place three days later, but it made headlines itself when candid photos emerged of Malkah and Auerbach together.

Auerbach’s next job was as a producer on Seven’s Sunday Night, which later became Spotlight. He worked with Jackson to secure Lehrmann for interviews with the show’s reporter Liam Bartlett in June and August 2023.

The program contained the contents of a five-hour recorded meeting between her and Lisa Wilkinson, Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz and others. It is believed that how Spotlight obtained these items is the subject of Ten’s urgent application, which was filed on Easter Sunday.

None of it would have come to light if Jackson had not been assigned to take on the highly controversial role as Commissioner Webb’s new advisor.

The role has been in the spotlight since the resignation of Webb’s previous senior adviser, Liz Deegan, following criticism of the police chief’s handling of the alleged double murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by one of her officers, Beau Lamarre.

Meanwhile, the story emerged of the Thai masseuses, who were originally charged via a Spotlight credit card for $1000 plus each, allegedly for Auerbach and Bruce Lehrman.

They were booked in the early hours of Saturday, November 26, 2022, but reports indicated that Jackson sent text messages to Auerbach with a script in Thai telling the masseuses to be paid in cash, with a tip totaling $2940, and the credit card charges were canceled.

There is no indication that Mr. Jackson did anything wrong, and he had nothing to do with arranging the massages or using the company’s credit card.

Lehrman publicly denied the massage claim and on the evening of Monday, March 25, Auerbach held his own press conference near his home in Elizabeth Bay.

By then he had parted ways with Sky, and in a two-minute appearance he disputed Lehrmann’s denial that the incident had caused him to lose his job at Seven.

“Last week, several stories and rumors emerged regarding Mr. Jackson and me, and events allegedly involving the two of us,” Auerbach told a gathering of reporters.

“They’ve taken on a life of their own, in their own way, and I can sum up a lot of it as gossip.”

‘At least one of the articles reported that I was counseled and given a written warning by Channel Seven about my conduct, in relation to an evening involving Bruce Lehrmann. That reporting is incorrect, just like the reports that I lost my job due to the incident.’

‘Mr Lehrmann very quickly denied the story, saying, and I quote: ‘It is an untrue and bizarre story from a disgruntled ex-Network Seven producer’.

“I want to make it abundantly clear that I reject Mr. Lehrmann’s allegations. That’s all I can say for now.’

Auerbach turned and left when reporters demanded he answer their questions.

Two days later he sent a concern notice, the first step in defamation proceedings, to Lehrmann.

Auerbach’s attorney, Rebekah Giles, said in the notice of concern that Lehrmann’s press statement conveyed the defamatory meaning that “Taylor Auerbach lied to the press about Bruce Lehrmann purchasing a massage from a Seven Network employee.”

The next day, last Thursday, NSW Police tore up the contract appointing Jackson and agreed to pay him $20,000 in lieu of the weeks he would have taken on a six-month contract.

According to Nine newspapersNetwork Ten hopes Auerbach’s evidence could “shed light on whether Lehrmann was responsible for leaking highly confidential information to Seven that was used in the interviews with Lehrmann in June and August 2023.”

Higgins’ text messages and extensive pre-recorded meeting with Higgins for The Project had been turned over to the Australian Federal Police under a search warrant as they investigated her claim that she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann at Parliament House in March 2019 .

Lehrmann has denied that he was the source of the material obtained by Seven.

Several parties in the defamation case have alleged that there were issues with the credibility of both Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins.

The case starts at 5 p.m.