Australia’s anti-corruption watchdog has ended its investigation into allegations that Bruce Lehrmann stole classified government documents.
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) officials raided the homes of Lehrmann and his former media minder, John Macgowan, in June 2024. The searches followed allegations that the pair had misappropriated secret documents connected to French submarines.
Investigators were looking for sensitive records linked to the submarine project, which has since been abandoned. Lehrmann was accused of taking the documents from his former employer, ex-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, in 2019.
The team conducting the raids included a sniffer dog, two uniformed NSW Police officers assigned to secure the property and an Australian Federal Police officer.
Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation. He also launched a civil action against former NACC commissioner Paul Brereton and Labor’s federal Special Minister of State, Don Farrell, over legal expenses he incurred during the investigation.
Among the items seized was Lehrmann’s blue Moleskine diary. The NACC claimed it contained some of the “most sensitive material ever held by the Australian government”.
The NACC informed Lehrmann and Macgowan on Monday that the investigation had been discontinued.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal during a board of inquiry into the handling of his rape trial, holding the blue Moleskine diary
The homes of Bruce Lehrmann (right) and his former media minder John Macgowan (left) were raided by the National Anti-Corruption Commission
“I am writing to inform you that the former Commissioner decided to take no further action concerning the investigation,” the NACC letter stated.
“This means that the investigation into that matter has now come to an end.”
“I confirm that you are now released from any further requirement to attend a hearing under the summons dated 12 September 2024.”
In a statement, Lehrmann described the probe as a “colossal waste of taxpayer money” and called for the NACC to be abolished.
“Over two years, the former commissioner used his powers to personally advance a conspiracy that I was a spy and a traitor to the nation, selling defence secrets to foreign countries,” he said.
“My close friend John Macgowan has also been deeply affected by this.”
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“The NACC needs to be abolished and replaced with nothing.”
The allegations concerning the French submarine contracts first emerged during Lehrmann’s 2022 rape trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
Brittany Higgins is pictured with Lehrmann at a Canberra pub before the pair returned to Parliament House; Higgins is standing beside him while he wears a light blue shirt
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured with Brittany Higgins and a Parliament House security guard in March 2019—the night Justice Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that he assaulted Higgins and allegedly stole submarine documents
Lehrmann told the court that he had not raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in the Parliament House office of their former boss, Linda Reynolds, in March 2019.
Both agree that they went back to Parliament House together in the early hours of the morning.
Higgins said he raped her. Lehrmann said he made notes on Question Time briefs about French submarine contracts and went home.
The criminal case was eventually abandoned due to misconduct by a juror.
The contracts came up again during Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson in 2023, when he told the Federal Court he was working on Question Time briefs rather than raping Higgins.
However, Justice Lee found that, on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann did rape Higgins and dismissed the French submarine argument.
‘Common sense suggests that it is obvious there was one dominant thought running through the mind of Mr Lehrmann as he was approaching Parliament House, and it was nothing to do with French submarine contracts,’ the judgement read.
That finding was upheld by the Full Federal Court and then by the High Court.
Lehrmann has always denied raping Higgins.
Our News Outlet has contacted the NACC for comment.
