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 lashed out at Linda Reynolds for describing him as ‘shifty’ during her defamation case against Brittany Higgins – which his lawyer described as  a ‘Jerry Springer s**t show’.

Senator Reynolds is suing her former employee Ms Higgins over social media posts in 2022 and 2023 that allegedly implied she did not support the young Liberal staffer after Lehrmann raped her in 2019.

Ms Reynolds has long maintained that she did try to help Ms Higgins and claims Ms Higgins’ posts damaged her reputation.

The four-week hearing in the WA Supreme Court began on Friday with Ms Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett delivering opening statements.

He said Ms Reynolds ‘had marvellous intuition… she thought Lehrmann was shifty’.

On Tuesday, Ms Reynolds’ team was hit with a legal letter from Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows claiming the term ‘shifty’ implied he was ‘a deceptive, crooked, fraudulent and dishonest character’.

In the letter, the term ‘shifty’ was described as a ‘character assassination’.

Lehrmann had previously offered his services as a witness to help Ms Reynolds’ case, but that relationship appears to have fractured beyond repair – he has now demanded a public apology.

Linda Reynolds, pictured left, arriving in court on Monday with her lawyers. Martin Bennett is next to Ms Reynolds

According to the letter, Ms Reynolds hadn’t described Lehrmann as ‘shifty’ prior to the current defamation proceedings.

On Monday, Ms Reynolds gave evidence in court saying Lehrmann had lied about his connections with former ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis.

The senator told the court she and her chief-of-staff Fiona Brown had reservations about Lehrmann’s future in the ministerial wing due to ‘his behaviour and odd things he said’.

‘Some people boast about things or people they know or things they do, and it was things like that we had concerns about.’

Speaking about Lehrmann’s apparent connection to Mr Lewis, Ms Reynolds said it  ‘wasn’t implausible’ because he did have dealings with national security officials during his time working in the office of Attorney-General George Brandis.

She went on to say: ‘Fiona knows [Mr Lewis] so she contacted him directly and he had never heard of Bruce, so that was not true.’

The letter said: ‘Lehrmann denies claiming he was “friends” with Mr Lewis, but in fact had many prior dealings with him and found him personable and friendly.’

Bruce Lehrmann, second left, is pictured with Linda Reynolds, third from the right in the back row, when she was sworn in as defence industry minister in 2019

Brittany Higgins is pictured in blue, arriving at the WA Supreme Court for mediation in March

Lehrmann’s legal team expressed concern that Ms Reynolds would continue to make unfavourable character assassinations against him.

‘He does not wish to be part of the chaotic state of affairs (colloquially known as a “Jerry Springer s**t show”), especially in circumstances he does not have standing for a right of reply,’ the letter read.

Ms Reynolds was asked to publish a public apology 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 Justice Michael Lee found on a balance of probabilities that Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins on a couch inside Ms Reynolds’ defence suite in Parliament House in March 2019.

At the time, Ms Higgins and Lehrmann were political staffers for Ms Reynolds, who was the minister for defence industry.

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

In May, launched an appeal to overturn Justice Lee’s findings with Ms Burrows as his instructing solicitor.