Bruce Lehrmann told employer ‘false allegations’ had not hurt his ability to lobby effectively, documents show

Bruce Lehrmann told his employer British American Tobacco Australia that ‘false allegations’ had not impeded his ability to lobby for the company. Photograph: Jeremy Piper/AAP

The former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann told the tobacco giant he lobbied for that the public revelation of rape allegations against him had “not hindered the relations within my political network” and said he was still able to influence federal policy to “further the business financially”, documents show.

New documents filed in Lehrmann’s defamation case against News Corp, Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden reveal Lehrmann’s correspondence with British American Tobacco Australia, his then employer, in the days and months after Brittany Higgins’ allegations were first made public in February 2021.