Emails from John Pesutto’s ex-staffers Rodrigo Pintos Lopez and Nick Johnston sought for defamation trial
Lawyers for expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming and her defamation-suit target, Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto, have argued over alleged failures to produce documents.
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Lawyers for dumped Victorian former Liberal state MP Moira Deeming claim John Pesutto’s legal team have failed to produce messages sent from the deactivated parliamentary email addresses of the state Opposition Leader’s former senior staff members weeks before the high-profile defamation trial begins.
Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Ms Deeming, told the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday that Mr Pesutto’s former chief of staff Rodrigo Pintos Lopez and communications director Nick Johnston had been sent notices late last year to preserve relevant documents.
The emails of concern are dated between March and May last year in the fallout of the Let Women Speak Rally which was attended by Ms Deeming and gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
However, Justice David O’Callaghan was told the email addresses of Mr Pesutto’s ex-staff members were deactivated in March this year following their resignations.
“Deactivation to us is not deletion. It tends to suggest reactivation can occur. We’ve asked these things and received no response,” Ms Chrysanthou said.
“Our perspective on this issue … is the respondent failed to act on his own volition to respond to our inquiries.”
There are plans for both Mr Pintos-Lopez and Mr Johnston to be cross-examined during the trial.
Ms Chrysanthou and Mr Pesutto’s lawyer, Matthew Collins KC, argued in a 90-minute case management and interlocutory hearing about documents each side had failed to produce to the other.
Mr Collins held up and waved two binders containing “hundreds” of documents Ms Deeming’s lawyers handed to them late on Friday night in court.
The documents contain correspondence between Ms Deeming and women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen and with journalists.
He argued that the documents should have been discoverable months ago and accused Ms Deeming of “stonewalling”.
“We had to push and push and push,” Mr Collins said.
“The relevance of these documents are quite apparent on review of them
“They show quite an extraordinary degree … of engagement with journalists from all media outlets, including at times, seeking advice from journalists on maximising the amount of damage to Mr Pesutto.”
An excerpt of Ms Deeming’s first affidavit was also read aloud in court, in which she alleges she felt “powerless”
“Pesutto was out there day and night controlling the narrative while I was forced to wait and trust the issue could be resolved privately,” the court heard.
“I was being told by journalists that Mr Pesutto or his office were backgrounding them, some of these journalists were mocking me saying I was naive for not responding to the media and staying silent.”
Ms Deeming is suing Mr Pesutto over his efforts to expel her from the Liberal Party room, with her case relying on media releases, press conferences and interviews her former boss gave following the Let Women Speak rally.
The defamation trial will begin on September 16.
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