Brittany Higgins breaks her silence after Linda Reynolds accused her and husband David Sharaz of ‘plot’ to take her down

Brittany Higgins has hit out at Linda Reynolds after the former minister accused her in court documents of plotting with her husband David Sharaz to topple the Morrison government.

The documents were filed by Senator Reynolds’ legal team. The former Minister for Defence Industry is separately suing Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz in the Federal Court of Western Australia over comments they made on social media that she claims defamed her.

A lawsuit is scheduled for early August, after several mediation talks between the parties failed.

The court documents have been amended to allege that Ms Higgins, a former aide to Senator Reynolds, and Mr Sharaz were involved in a political conspiracy aimed at using her rape allegations against the Liberal/National Party government.

A spokesman for Ms Higgins responded to the new claims on Tuesday, saying: ‘Brittany Higgins stands by her position on the aftermath of her rape in Parliament House.

“She is being forced back into court for the third time to discuss these harrowing events.”

Senator Reynolds’ updated statement of claim, obtained by The Australian The newspaper alleges that Ms Higgins acted “maliciously” by posting on social media about the way her rape allegations were handled by the government.

“They were published in support of a plan by the defendant and Mr. Sharaz to use the defendant’s allegations of rape and the political cover-up … as a weapon to inflict immediate political damage on the plaintiff and the then government,” the summons said.

Senator Reynolds alleges that part of that plan involved arranging meetings with Labor figures such as Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who were allegedly fed false information.

Senators were then encouraged to ask “aggressive questions” during Question Time in February 2021, shortly after Ms Higgins went public with her rape allegations against her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in March 2019.

In a text message included in the court documents, Mr Sharaz sent Ms Higgins the following message: ‘Katy is coming to me with some questions that you should be prepared for… she is really involved now.’

During Senate Question Time on 17 February 2021, Senator Gallagher accused Senator Reynolds of engaging in a “cover-up” by failing to answer questions about whether Ms Higgins was encouraged not to report the alleged rape to police.

“By withholding information, she is continuing a two-year cover-up that has caused Ms. Higgins great trauma,” Sentaro Gallagher said.

‘It is often the cover-up that is as traumatic as other aspects of a serious crime like this, because it compounds the trauma.

“It means that the people she worked for, the people she looked up to and expected to treat her well, didn’t do that.”

Senator Reynolds claims that these “aggressive” questions and the aftermath of The Project interview, which aired that same month, led to Ms Higgins being hospitalised.

In addition to alleging a conspiracy, the indictment also refers to several text messages between Ms. Higgins and Mr. Sharaz.

In a message sent in March 2021, Ms Higgins wrote: ‘He (Scott Morrison) is about to get screwed. Just you wait. We’ve got him.’

On March 28, 2021, Mr. Sharaz wrote: ‘Suck shit Linda… You horrible human being.’

The claim also refers to the five-hour meeting prior to the interview between The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson, her producer, Ms Higgins, and Mr Sharaz.

In it, Mr Sharaz outlined a timetable for conducting the interview, which was to align with the Senate hearings on the estimates.

“Mr. Sharaz stated, ‘I finally asked Britt, what do you want to get out of this? And she said, ‘Well, I want Bruce to have a hard time finding a job forever, like it’s going to be hard for me,'” the statement of claim reads.

‘Apparently, Mr. Sharaz addressed the suspect directly and then said, “And then you said, at best, Linda Reynolds…’, at which point the group erupted in laughter.’

Ms Reynolds’ complaint also alleges that Sharaz arranged meetings with other senior Labor figures, including then-opposition leader Anthony Albanese, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and deputy leader Tanya Plibersek.

According to the newspaper, Ms Higgins defends the claims.

In April of this year, Judge Michael Lee handed down a 324-page ruling in the defamation case against Bruce Lehrmann, finding that rape had indeed occurred.

But Judge Lee also found no evidence of the political “cover-up narrative” he said was promoted by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz “from the very first moment” of their decision to speak to Lisa Wilkinson about The Project in February 2021.

He described the story as “objectively lacking in facts, but a lot of speculation and internal inconsistencies.”

Shortly after the verdict, Ms Reynolds told Daily Mail Australia that to say she was pleased with Judge Lee’s ruling would be an “understatement”, describing the whole affair as “the cover-up that never was”.

“For three years I have endured intense public scrutiny, vilification, vile trolling, and being demonized as the villain in a political cover-up story that I always knew was untrue,” she said.

Ms Reynolds said she was “determined to fully defend her reputation” following Judge Lee’s ground-breaking finding.

The case will be heard on August 2.