Bruce Lehrmann and his former media minder John Macgowan have been raided by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) over an ‘insane conspiracy theory’ concerning the alleged leak of top secret documents.
Daily Mail Australia understands that the former Liberal staffer’s temporary interstate residence was raided in June.
The NACC have been investigating rumours that Lehrmann stole documents relating to Australia’s now defunct submarine deal with France between March and April 2019, around the same time he is accused of raping Brittany Higgins.
He’s accused of then passing on the top-secret documents to Mr Macgowan for him to sell.
Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrow said: ‘The submarine spy games theory appears to be another character assassination attempt against Bruce.
‘The raid ended up simply being just a cosy night out with the officers and Bruce.
‘The NACC bought a round of pizzas while they sat by the fireplace watching the State of Origin.’
The news comes after Mr Macgowan claimed up to 20 NACC officers raided his girlfriend’s Earlwood home in Sydney’s inner-west in June.
The homes of Bruce Lehrmann (right) and his former media minder John Macgowan (left) have been raided by the National Anti-Corruption Commission
The NACC is investigating claims Mr Lehrmann (pictured) stole documents about Australia’s defunct submarine deal with France
The squad reportedly included a sniffer dog, two uniformed NSW Police officers to secure the house and an Australian Federal Police officer.
Mr Macgowan believes the ‘conspiracy’ about Mr Lehrmann stealing the documents stemmed from a joke he made during an interview, which he didn’t realise was being recorded.
He said ‘documents, phones, anything they could get their hands on’ was seized during the raid.
‘The only thing they didn’t raid was my snake tank,’ Mr Macgowan told news.com.au.
Mr Macgowan said officers used ‘paper’ sniffer dogs in an attempt to find the documents and went as far as to raid his girlfriend’s underwear drawer.
Mr Macgowan believes the ‘conspiracy’ about Mr Lehrmann stealing the submarine documents stemmed from a joke he made during an interview
Mr Macgowan (pictured with Mr Lehrmann) said officers used ‘paper’ sniffer dogs in an attempt to find the documents
He now wants the NACC to return his three mobile phones and laptop which were seized after completing a voluntary interview.
‘You’ve got to communicate with people about when the investigation is over. I am just sitting here thinking, ‘when is the next raid coming?’,’ he said.
‘I volunteered to do an interview. There’s zero truth to it. It was a made up story promoted by the conspiracy theorists on Twitter.’
The search warrant for Mr Macgowan’s home stated it was based on ‘reasonable grounds for suspecting that they will afford evidence of that alleged offence.’
The National Anti-Corruption Watchdog has also seized communications between Mr Macgowan and News.com.au in January 2023 when he provided the outlet with a copy of the Moller report.
The Moller report is a document related to the investigation into Ms Higgins’ alleged rape.
It was originally prepared for internal police purposes to decide whether the charges should be pursued.
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