Brittany Higgins wants inquiry to look into diary leak as Linda Reynolds makes ‘political hit job’ claim

Brittany Higgins will seek to raise the leaking of her private material, including the contents of her personal diary, with the current inquiry probing the handling of the Bruce Lehrmann case.

The alleged leak was revealed on Saturday as Higgins’s former boss Linda Reynolds broke her silence to allege she was the victim of a “political hit job”.

In an interview with the Australian, she said she was left “broken” by the suggestion she covered up allegations that Higgins was raped in her office.

She said she had no doubt that there had been a “highly orchestrated political campaign” against her which had “exploited” her former staffer.

“I think it was a terrible abuse of Brittany Higgins’s circumstances,” Reynolds told the newspaper. “She was clearly, in my mind, exploited for overtly political purposes, by Labor, and also a number of prominent journalists and female advocates who, in the #MeToo zeitgeist, had found their perfect vehicle to elevate the movement but also to bring down a senior minister to hurt the Morrison government.”

Reynolds said Scott Morrison had privately apologised to her one day after rebuking her publicly for failing to tell him of the allegations. She also suggested a Liberal staffer tipped off the media to her whereabouts in Goulburn, where she was eating at a restaurant, after she took medical leave due to the stress of the scandal, which she said exacerbated a pre-existing heart condition and left her in hospital.

The report also contained details from two pages of Higgins’s personal diary, referring to contact with journalists as well as Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull in March 2021.

Higgins tweeted a complaint about the leaking of her private information shortly after the article was published.

She said she had taken a photo of an old page in her diary on 7 July 2021.

The contents of her phone had been voluntarily given to police while they investigated her allegation of rape, she said, but the diary’s contents were not tendered in court.

“Therefore, no journalist should have seen the photo of my diary,” she tweeted. “Stop publishing the private contents of my phone. I entrusted police with my private information for the sole purpose that it could aid their investigation into my sexual assault, nothing else.”

The Guardian understands that Higgins will seek to raise the leaking of her private material, including the diary contents, with the current inquiry probing the handling of the case.

That inquiry is being led by Walter Sofronoff KC, an eminent, retired Queensland judge. The inquiry has remit to examine dissemination of police information about the case and will take submissions from relevant parties.

Higgins also alleges her private images, texts and WhatsApp messages have been leaked improperly.

In December, ACT’s director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, expressed concern about the “potentially unlawful” sharing of police material used to cast doubt on Higgins’s credibility, including internal police notes and briefing documents.

The source of the leaked material has not been made public and the Guardian is not suggesting Reynolds was responsible. Drumgold declined to comment on Saturday.

Bruce Lehrmann consistently denied the allegation that he raped Higgins. His first trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and prosecutors decided not to proceed with a retrial because of the likely impact on Higgins’s mental health.

In her interview with the Australian, Reynolds spoke about her description of Higgins as a “lying cow” in 2021. She said the comment was a reference to Higgins’s allegation that she was not properly supported after making the allegation of rape.

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Reynolds said she later paid money to Higgins to make her defamation complaint “go away” and said she was in “no state to defend myself”.

She described the personal impact of the stress, blaming Labor for pursuing her over her handling of the matter. Prior to one question time, she said she had collapsed on the bathroom floor of her Senate office, before being rescued by Anne Ruston, who was in the neighbouring office. She told the Australian:

“I was just broken. I was sobbing. I was inconsolable. Anne – my saving angel – bolted in … and so she just immediately took charge,” she said. “She went out. I think she contacted Simon Birmingham, the [Senate] leader. It was so bad. I literally cannot remember whether I did actually get up for question time that day or I didn’t.”

She said the stress had exacerbated an existing heart condition. Former heath minister Greg Hunt had noticed her poor health prior to a National Press Club address and called his own personal doctor to see her, Reynolds said.

“So he came up, took one look at me, took my vitals and he said, ‘I’m ringing Canberra hospital’.”

A spokesperson for foreign affairs minister Penny Wong said Labor had asked reasonable questions of the Morrison government about how they responded to the serious allegations.

“Many of these questions remain unanswered,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“These new claims from Senator Reynolds are completely rejected and reveal a deep lack of respect for the autonomy of her former staff member who made these allegations.”

In response, Higgins said she had already received apologies from Reynolds and had been through multiple reviews, a trial, mediation with the federal government and now an independent inquiry into the criminal trial.

“The facts have been well-­established,” she told the Australian. “Any revisionist history offered by my former employer at this time is deeply hurtful and needlessly cruel.”

ACT policing was approached for comment.