Lehrmann invoiced Seven for ‘bender’ with cocaine and sex workers, court told

Bruce Lehrmann asked Seven to pay for a “bender” in Sydney with cocaine and sex workers as the network sought to secure an exclusive interview with the former federal Liberal staffer, an ex-producer on its Spotlight program has claimed in explosive evidence in the Federal Court.

Taylor Auerbach has emerged as an unlikely witness in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and high-profile presenter Lisa Wilkinson after Ten won an eleventh-hour court bid on Tuesday to reopen its case and call him to give evidence in its defence.

Taylor Auerbach with his lawyer Rebekah Giles arriving at the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The former senior producer on Spotlight told the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday that Lehrmann had “purchased a bag of cocaine while we were dining at Franca” in Potts Point in Sydney on January 5 last year before the exclusive interview deal was inked in April.

Auerbach said he had caught a taxi with Lehrmann from the restaurant to Meriton Suites near World Square, and Lehrmann had pulled out the bag “and started to put it on a plate”. He said Lehrmann had told him he wanted to order sex workers to the Meriton, and began “Googling a series of websites to try and make that happen”. The accommodation was paid for by Seven.

Auerbach alleged Lehrmann “agreed to be in a Spotlight interview as long as we didn’t ask him about what happened on the night in Canberra” with Brittany Higgins, who has accused Lehrmann of sexual assault.

“I was taken aback,” Auerbach said. He believed any interview would have to address that topic, he told the court.

Auerbach said Lehrmann “told me that he was going to pay for the evening” but the former staffer subsequently told him his “bank account was dry after the, for want of a better word, bender, and asked if there was a way that we’d be able to compensate him for that”.

He told the court a plan was later devised for Lehrmann to issue an invoice to Seven for “per diems”, a term the network used to refer to “reasonable expenses while on work trips”.

“I recall seeing the invoice,” Auerbach said.

He said he had texted his boss, Steve Jackson, then supervising producer on Spotlight, that night, saying “Bruce was on the warpath again” and he believed he had used the words “this is f---ed”. This was allegedly a reference to a previous incident in November 2022.

Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

In an affidavit filed in court, Auerbach said he recalled “monies paid by [Lehrmann] ... for illicit drugs and prostitutes that evening at the Meriton and the following evening at a brothel in Surry Hills were reimbursed ... by Seven through ‘per diems’ via invoice” sent to Seven.

Lehrmann’s barrister, Matthew Richardson, SC, put to Auerbach that there were “no per diems paid” and “it didn’t happen”. “It did,” Auerbach said.

He said Spotlight’s executive producer, Mark Llewellyn, “gave verbal approval”, and Lehrmann had told him he was paid.

Former federal Liberal political staffer Bruce Lehrmann, late last year.Credit: James Brickwood

Auerbach denied in court that he had been accused of using Seven funds to pay for personal expenses before he left the network when his contract expired in August.

“Had you ever used Channel Seven credit cards or Channel Seven funds to obtain personal services for yourself?” Richardson asked.

“Maybe accidentally $30 here and there,” he replied.

Auerbach said his employment at Sky News was terminated this year “due to trust and confidence issues” following media reports about an alleged incident in November 2022 involving Lehrmann, a Seven employee and two masseuses.

Auerbach’s use of corporate credit card

Under cross-examination, Auerbach agreed he was “so mortified and ashamed” that he offered Seven his resignation on November 26, 2022, after he put thousands of dollars in charges on a corporate credit card for expenses he described in an email as having “nothing to do with work”. Seven did not accept his resignation.

Auerbach has said in an affidavit that those charges, totalling more than $10,000, were for Thai masseuses for himself and Lehrmann. He claimed they were booked to attend his Elizabeth Bay home in the early hours of November 26.

“It was a personal matter. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t involving work,” Auerbach told the court of the expenses. “That morning was the worst morning of my life, probably, when I sent that email.”

But he said Seven “offered me a promotion … the following week”, as well as a pay rise.

Taylor Auerbach’s lawyer Rebekah Giles (left) and Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Auerbach agreed under cross-examination that he hated Jackson and blamed him “in part” for his contract at Seven not being renewed last year.

Asked if he had been backgrounding journalists against Jackson in recent weeks, he replied: “In part.”

NSW Police last week tore up a contract appointing Jackson the new chief of its media unit.

Auerbach’s bullying claim

Auerbach’s solicitor, Rebekah Giles, told the court her client had made a since-settled psychological injury claim against Seven that alleged “sustained bullying [and] antisemitism over a significant period”. Lehrmann’s lawyers have sought access to documents related to that claim.

Seven’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam leaving the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Higgins’ texts

In affidavits filed in court, Auerbach alleges Lehrmann provided him with more than 2300 pages of text messages between Higgins and her ex-boyfriend, Ben Dillaway, during a golfing trip in Tasmania in December 2022. He rejected a suggestion by Lehrmann’s barrister that it “didn’t happen”.

Auerbach told the court that Llewellyn also “sent me a bundle of photographs via WhatsApp” to help him script a section of Spotlight’s first interview with Lehrmann, which aired in June last year. He said the photos were screenshots of messages between Higgins and author and Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons, who is married to Wilkinson. FitzSimons helped negotiate a book deal for Higgins.

Auerbach said he could identify a reflection in the laptop screen of Llewellyn’s “bald head” and glasses.

Asked in court last year if he had given any documents to Seven, Lehrmann said: “No, I just gave an interview.”

He also told the court that Seven had agreed to pay his rent for one year under the interview deal. “That’s what I get,” he said.

Ten alleges that Auerbach’s evidence, if accepted, forms the basis of a submission that Lehrmann lied to the court. It also alleges that if Lehrmann did leak the messages, he engaged in a contempt of court and abuse of process.

Higgins’ text messages had been handed over to the Australian Federal Police under a search warrant as it investigated her claim she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in Parliament House in March 2019. The pair were political advisers at the time.

Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence. His ACT Supreme Court criminal trial for sexual assault was aborted in 2022 owing to juror misconduct, and a second trial did not proceed owing to concerns about Higgins’ mental health.

If Lehrmann did leak the text messages, Ten alleges his conduct amounted to a contempt because he breached an implied obligation not to use the material for a purpose unrelated to his criminal trial.

Lehrmann launched defamation proceedings last year against Ten and Wilkinson, a former co-host of the network’s flagship current affairs program The Project, over a February 2021 interview with Higgins in which she accused a then-unnamed colleague of rape.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.