The OTHER Lisa Wilkinson Logies blow-up no-one knew about – until now: Key witness in Brittany Higgins’ case secretly took Channel 10 on… and The Project host was not happy

EXCLUSIVE

Emails reveal Brittany Higgins’ former boss has threatened to sue Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for a staggering six-figure sum over a clip from a Project interview played at the Logies.

Daily Mail Australia has obtained a series of emails sent to Channel 10’s lawyers showing Fiona Brown – Ms Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann’s old boss at Parliament House – threatening to sue the network and Wilkinson.

Ms Brown took exception to a Logies segment showing Wilkinson’s award-winning The Project story, originally broadcast in February 2021, which revealed Ms Higgins’ allegations that she was allegedly raped by Mr Lehrmann two years earlier.

Mr. Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.

Her lawyer fired off a legal letter claiming Ms Brown could hope for $443,000 in damages from Network Ten if the case went to trial, but would settle for a $150,000 payment.

It was Wilkinson’s second legal headache from the awards ceremony in June 2022 – the first being that her Silver Logies victory speech before her interview with Ms Higgins delayed Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial.

An email from Wilkinson to Ten’s senior litigator Tasha Smithies shows The Project presenter branded Ms Brown’s complaint as ‘completely ridiculous’.

“Thank you for letting me know about Tasha,” she wrote on January 17, 2023. “The entire premise of her complaint is completely ridiculous… and the Logies stuff is just palpably untrue.”

Ms Brown complained that neither Wilkinson nor Ten had asked the Logies not to air the segment – a claim rejected by Ten’s lawyers.

In her response to Wilkinson, Ms Smithies wrote: ‘Hopefully this is the last we hear from Fiona Brown.’

Ms Brown was chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Linda Reynolds in 2019 when Ms Higgins alleged she had been raped.

During her The Project interview, Ms Higgins claimed Ms Brown did not support her when she first revealed her alleged rape, and made her choose between filing a police complaint and keeping her job.

Ms Brown has long maintained that these claims were untrue and that she only tried to support Ms Higgins after first disclosing the alleged rape to her, even offering to take her to the Australian Federal Police to have a formal to file a complaint.

At the Logies – which were broadcast on Channel Nine instead of Ten – a clip of the program was played before the winner was announced.

That extract contained several statements made by Ms Higgins to Ms Brown, but which did not emerge clearly from the correspondence obtained.

A week after the Logies, Ms Brown’s lawyer, Walter MacCallum, sent a letter of concern – the first step in defamation proceedings – to Thomson Geer, the law firm used by Network Ten.

In another letter on December 22, 2022, Mr MacCallum said Ms Brown would settle for $150,000 in damages and an apology to be broadcast on The Project, signing apologies from Wilkinson and Network Ten respectively.

“Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson will jointly pay our client the total amount of $150,000 in lieu of damages,” the letter said.

“Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson will pay our client’s legal costs incurred before this offer was made, and our client’s legal costs incurred in further negotiating or settling the terms of the required documentation, on an attorney/client basis.”

In response, the network attempted to argue that Ms. Brown had left it too late to bring defamation proceedings because there is a one-year deadline, and the notice of concerns was sent 16 months after The Project interview had been broadcast.

The limitation period can be extended if the claimant – Ms Brown, in this case – successfully argues that it was unreasonable to commence proceedings earlier, which Mr MacCallum says he would be prepared to do.

Ten also argued that he was not involved in the broadcast of that particular segment during the awards ceremony on Channel Nine.

However, Mr MacCallum pointed out that the concerns raised after the Logies were the second the network received about the way Ms Brown was portrayed in the original Project interview in February 2021.

He said the network was aware of Ms Brown’s concerns about the original Project broadcast and asked why it had not expected parts of the interview could be rebroadcast at the Logies.

Mr MacCallum also asked why the network did not ask for the clip to be removed from Nine’s website after the interview was rebroadcast, and focused on the acceptance speech Wilkinson gave after the clip was shown.

During the acceptance speech, Wilkinson appeared to side with Ms Higgins, calling her a proven rape victim rather than an alleged rape victim.

At the time, the criminal trial against Lehrmann was expected to last only a few days.

The ACT’s chief justice moved the hearing as a direct result of the speech because he feared it would bias a jury against Mr Lehrmann, destroying his chance of a fair trial.

In his letter to Thomson Geer, Mr MacCallum wrote: ‘Neither Ms Wilkinson’s speech, nor the interview footage, nor Logies’ presentation is or was an expression of opinion based on true facts, or otherwise.’

He said the combination of the interview clip and Wilkinson’s speech was problematic because together they implicated Ms Higgins’ allegations against Mr Lehrmann, and her allegations against Ms Brown were correct.

Ten has rejected Ms Brown’s claim.

“Our clients argue that any defamation action by your client would be hopeless and doomed to failure,” attorney Marlia Saunders said.

“While our clients wish your client no harm, they will vigorously defend any proceedings brought against them.”

It was unclear what happened next.