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

Bruce Lehrmann has slammed Linda Reynolds for calling him “shady” during her defamation lawsuit against Brittany Higgins. His lawyer described the case as a “Jerry Springer s**t show.”

Senator Reynolds is suing her former employee Ms Higgins over social media posts from 2022 and 2023 in which she allegedly suggested she would not support the young Liberal Party staffer after Lehrmann raped her in 2019.

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

The four-week hearing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia began on Friday with an opening statement from Ms Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett.

He said Ms. Reynolds “had a great intuition… she thought Lehrmann was cunning.”

On Tuesday, Reynolds’ team was served with a legal brief from Lehrmann’s attorney Zali Burrows, arguing that the term “shady” implied he was “a deceptive, dishonest and dishonest character.”

In the letter, the term “devious” was described as a “character assassination.”

Lehrmann had previously offered to testify in Mrs. Reynolds’ case, but that relationship appears to have been irreparably damaged. He is now demanding a public apology.

Linda Reynolds, pictured left, arrives at court on Monday with her lawyers. Martin Bennett stands next to Mrs Reynolds

According to the letter, Ms. Reynolds had not described Lehrmann as “untrustworthy” before the current defamation proceedings.

Testifying in court on Monday, Ms Reynolds said Lehrmann had lied about his links to former ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis.

The senator told the court she and her chief of staff Fiona Brown had concerns about Lehrmann’s future at the ministerial department because of “his behaviour and the strange things he said”.

“Some people brag about things, people they know or things they do. And those were the things we were concerned about.”

Ms Reynolds said the apparent connection between Lehrmann and Mr Lewis was “not unlikely” because he did deal with national security officials during his time in the office of Attorney-General George Brandis.

She continued: ‘Fiona knows [Mr Lewis] so she contacted him directly and he had never heard of Bruce, so that wasn’t true.’

The letter states: ‘Lehrmann denies that he was ‘friend’ of Mr Lewis, but in reality he had had a lot of contact with him and found him to be pleasant and friendly.’

Bruce Lehrmann, second from left, is pictured with Linda Reynolds, third from right in the back row, as she was sworn in as Secretary of Defense Industry in 2019

Brittany Higgins is pictured in blue as she arrives at the Western Australian Supreme Court for mediation in March

Lehrmann’s legal team worried that Ms. Reynolds would continue to accuse him of character assassination.

“He does not want to be part of the chaotic situation (colloquially known as a “Jerry Springer s**t show”), especially in circumstances where he has no right of response,” the letter said.

Ms. Reynolds was asked to publicly apologize on X and Instagram.

She was also asked to clarify that Lehrmann “did not claim to be friends with Mr. Lewis.”

In April, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee ruled on a balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had indeed raped Ms Higgins on a bench in Ms Reynolds’ defence chamber in Parliament House in March 2019.

Ms Higgins and Lehrmann were at the time political aides to Ms Reynolds, the Minister of Defence Industry.

Lehrmann has long maintained that he did not rape Ms. Higgins.

In May, he launched an appeal to overturn Judge Lee’s findings, with Ms Burrows as his lawyer.