Four Corners fallout has Christian Porter and ABC journalist Louise Milligan brawling

A war of words has erupted between embattled Attorney-General Christian Porter and the ABC.

Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan.

A war of words has erupted between embattled Attorney-General Christian Porter and the ABC over the public broadcaster’s reporting of allegations that he had a relationship with a staffer and how he was asked to respond to the claims.

Mr Porter was the focus of the Four Corners episode in which former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull alleged he counselled the then social services minister over his behaviour after being seen with a young woman at the popular Canberra bar Public in December 2017.

The Attorney-General — who denies the allegations and is considering his legal options — attacked journalist Louise Milligan for not directly contacting him over the story.

“The journalist, Louise Milligan, never contacted me or my office, despite my awareness that for many months she has been directly contacting friends, former colleagues, former students — even old school friends from the mid-1980s — asking for rumours and negative comment about me,” he said in a statement late on Monday night.

But after initial confusion over the sequence of events, Mr Porter’s office confirmed to The Australian that it had been contacted several times by other ABC journalists — including Four Corners’ long-time executive producer Sally Neighbour — about the program’s allegations over a two-week period.

Milligan took to Twitter to defend her journalistic standards and said her team had approached Mr Porter for comment multiple times.

“We gave the Attorney TWO WEEKS. That’s right, journalistic colleagues who give politicians hours,” she tweeted.

“He provided nothing. His staffer kept telling us he couldn’t possibly put this to the Attorney. A matter for him.”

An ABC spokeswoman said on Tuesday more than 20 questions on the allegations were provided to Mr Porter’s office by Neighbour and show researcher Lucy Carter in five different emails and several phone calls.

“More than one reporter worked on this investigation. Multiple attempts were made to contact Mr Porter by Four Corners,” the ABC spokeswoman said. “Questions sent to the two ministers named in the program included detailed information about the allegations in the story.”