Linda Reynolds vs Brittany Higgins: Day 14: Higgins tells journalist Samantha Maiden that Senator ‘hated’ her

The award-winning journalist who broke the Brittany Higgins rape story has flatly denied she was part of a plot to bring down Scott Morrison or Senator Linda Reynolds – saying she wanted to change the Parliament, not the government.

And she has also revealed she became “anxious” after being quizzed by a man she didn’t know about Ms Higgins’ whereabouts during the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann – who turned out to be Ms Reynolds’ partner Robert Reid.

In February 2021, Samantha Maiden’s bombshell report about the Ms Higgins’ claim of rape by Bruce Lehrmann in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds first appeared.

It sent shockwaves through Canberra and across the country, followed by the TV interview with Ms Higgins by Lisa Wilkinson later the same day.

Ms Maiden won a Gold Walkley award for her coverage.

On Thursday, she became part of the story — after being called as the final witness in Ms Reynolds’ defamation claim against Ms Higgins in WA’s Supreme Court.

That summons came after Ms Reynolds’ framing her claim against two of Ms Higgins’ social media posts as part of years-long plan to damage the Senator and Liberal government, which included Ms Maiden’s coverage.

“It also basically went to…the drinking culture in Parliament House, and concerns about the way the Canberra bubble, for want of a better term, operated,” she said.

She was also asked about an interaction she had in the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022 with a man she didn’t know, after she had been excused from being a witness herself.

“A gentleman that I didn’t recognise has just started engaging in conversation. He said: ‘Hi, Sam, how you going?’

“And I was a bit taken aback, because I didn’t know who he was,” she said.

“And then he started saying to me, asking questions about where Brittany Higgins was. And I was quite anxious, nervous about this.”

She told the court she only worked out who Mr Reid was, and his relationship with Ms Reynolds, during her questioning during that trial.

In earlier evidence, it was revealed Ms Higgins told Ms Maiden that the Senator “hated me” — because her allegation threatened the Senator’s position as Minister of Defence.

Audio of Ms Maiden’s first on-the-record interview with Ms Higgins in the month before the story was published was played in court, where she could be heard telling the junior staffer “You don’t have to do this.”

“If you change your mind if you want to do it, that’s great. You don’t owe anyone anything. You don’t have to please me or Lisa Wilkinson or anyone, right? You just need to please yourself,” Ms Maiden said.

Then in a portion of the tape where Ms Higgins talked about her boss, she says she believes she became “toxic” after she raised her complaint.

She still, to this day, hates having to be around me.

“She didn’t know me. She wouldn’t like me really, and I was just kind of the sudden problem for her,” Ms Higgins said in the interview.

“She avoided being in photos, avoided being near me like I was toxic.

“She hated me. So, she worked her entire life to finally get MinDef, and I was in her office for two weeks … some little twit she doesn’t know just gets assaulted in her office, and she hates it, and she hated me,” she says.

“She still, to this day, hates having to be around me.”

Ms Higgins was also asked in their interview about the infamous meeting with her boss on April 1, 2019 — held in the same office in which Ms Higgins says she was raped days before.

“So I was sitting having this meeting about my choices, about what had just happened to me … so I barely even remember the conversation,” Ms Higgins said.

“The couch was there, but she was saying words. I’m sure she was saying very many lovely words, but all I knew was the couch.”

Messages between Ms Maiden and Ms Higgins’ now-husband David Sharaz were also aired in court, including one where he wrote to the journalist “What a f*cking scoop. Haha”.

“I do recall receiving that message, and I thought that it was inappropriate,” Ms Maiden said.

Another message, sent by Ms Maiden to Ms Higgins, stated that “having played my little part in your operation has been one of the greatest moments in journalism”

Asked what she meant by the phrase “operation”, Ms Maiden said she was referring to breaking the story and what flowed from it.

“I was very … proud of her, the issues that she had raised, I thought they were very important,” Ms Maiden said.

“She went on to change the law, and I thought that she was showing a great deal of bravery in what she had done at great personal cost. I was very impressed by it.”

Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over a number of social media posts the pair made in 2022 and 2023.

The posts were critical of Senator Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 by her then colleague Bruce Lehrmann.

The former political staffer was later charged with rape and faced trial in 2022, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

The charge was ultimately dropped and Mr Lehrmann continues to maintain his innocence.

Mr Lehrmann lost a subsequent civil defamation case in April this year when the Federal Court determined, on the balance of probabilities, that he had raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House.

He is appealing the decision.

In late evening evidence on Thursday, Senator Anne Ruston recalled how Senator Linda Reynolds was “brought to her knees” after weeks of sustained attacks from the media and in parliament in the wake of a rape allegation.

Senator Ruston told the WA Supreme Court how the storm that erupted over allegations Senator Reynolds had mishandled the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins left her friend unable to do her job or sleep.

She was giving evidence in Senator Reynolds’ defamation trial on Tuesday, and said how it was horrifying to see the event unfold because it was so far from her true character.

On Tuesday, former senator Marise Payne also gave evidence telling the WA Supreme Court how she saw Senator Reynolds shaking and holding a desk tightly after intense questioning in the senate over the rape allegation.

Ms Payne said she observed how her colleague had tried to respond to questions in the most appropriate way, but it was deeply concerning how distressed she became.

She said Senator Reynolds was under an enormous amount of pressure from other senators in the senate chamber.

“A level of pressure I had rarely seen before or since,” she said in court.

“There is no question the chamber is meant to be a place of debate and contest, but it was a significant amount of pressure.”

The trial continues Wednesday and will hear evidence from News Corp journalist Samantha Maiden, who broke Ms Higgins’ story in February, 2021.

Former Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Leanne Close is also likely to be called by the defence on Thursday.

with AAP