A trove of text messages and emails between Walter Sofronoff and the Australian newspaper columnist Janet Albrechtsen while he headed a review into Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial have been revealed.
The chain of communications, released by the ACT supreme court on Wednesday, revealed the pair exchanged frequent phone calls, regularly shared documents and phone numbers and lunched together.
Sofronoff had sent inquiry transcripts and other “strictly confidential” information to Albrechtsen. The Australian columnist also sent Sofronoff a meme that likened him to The Wolf, a fixer character in Quentin Tarantino’s movie Pulp Fiction.
Sofronoff chaired an ACT inquiry into the investigation and aborted Lehrmann trial in 2023.
The documents were tendered as part of former top prosecutor Shane Drumgold’s partially successful challenge to Sofronoff’s damning inquiry findings about him, in which a judge ruled there was a perception of bias by Sofronoff due to the 273 interactions he had with Albrechtsen in a seven-month period.
The former Queensland judge made a total of 65 phone calls, covering almost 10 hours, to journalists between February and July 2023, the ACT supreme court was told in January. Fifty-five of those calls were made to journalists at the Australian newspaper, with the majority directly to Albrechtsen.
The messages and emails show Sofronoff had sent Albrechtsen a copy of his report in late July ahead of its official release in August.
They also show another of the masthead’s staff, the Australian editorial director, Claire Harvey, wrote an email of support to Sofronoff after he was publicly criticised by the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, and the attorney general, Shane Rattenbury, for handing it to select journalists.
The decision to send the inquiry’s draft report to select journalists ahead of its official release is now the subject of a corruption investigation by the ACT integrity commission.
In the email sent by Harvey in August 2023, she described herself as an “interested observer” and expressed significant support for Sofronoff.
“We deeply value the respect and trust you’ve shown journalists over the years,” Harvey said.
“I – and all my colleagues who care about ethical journalism – hold you in the highest regard.”
Sofronoff responded, thanking her for her support and an editorial, which he said had had an “immediate practical effect in an instance professionally”.
“I’ll tell you the details when we meet,” he said.
Sofronoff suggested the ACT government’s criticisms of him were connected to frustration at “losing control of the narrative”.
“The lying about being shocked that I was dealing with journalists is unforgivable,” Sofronoff wrote to Harvey on 9 August 2023.
“To me it is shocking that the chief justice and the attorney general prefer to defend their dishonest friend than address the evil wrought by a prosecutor who was eager to lie to jail a man who may be innocent.
“This is insanity. Equally bad is the attitude of journalists who, by parotting [sic] the government line … are not just endorsing this. They have ensured that the public reaction they have generated will deter every future commissioner from engaging with journalists. I can tell you that it will never happen again in our lifetime.
“Besides which, while too cowardly to accuse Janet directly, the implication that everyone has believed is that she is untrustworthy. The evil effects of the behaviour of politicians and many journalists will persist for some time. Thank you truly for standing by me.”
The documents show Albrechtsen and Sofronoff were introduced by investigative reporter Hedley Thomas, a reporter at the Australian, in February last year.
“Janet Albrechtsen is a lawyer and a conservative columnist for The Oz for many years. A number of my left leaning friends find her very persuasive. In all of my experiences with her she’s been scrupulously straight and professional,” he wrote in an email.
“Janet has been doing much of the post-verdict reporting and commentary on the Higgins case, including breaking several recent and very interesting stories about complaints being levelled against the DPP Drumgold and his behaviour.
“I think it would be fair to speculate that Janet’s relationship with the defence team in the Higgins case would be much more rosy than with the DPP.”
Thomas also said in a text message that Albrechtsen was “happy to collate her writings for you and your inquiry”.
“Janet has done her homework and expressed great confidence in your appointment.”
Albrechtsen and Sofronoff had lunch together in March in Brisbane. In April, a few days after the two had an 18-minute phone conversation, Albrechtsen sent him a phone contact for Lehrmann.
“As discussed,” she wrote.
During the board of inquiry’s hearings, the text messages show Albrechtsen had asked Sofronoff for details of what was said while the hearing was muted. At times, those watching online could not hear audio.
“Am I allowed to know what transpired during muted sections” she asked.
Sofronoff replied: “I’ll send you the transcript in the morning. Boring tedeschi.”
Mark Tedeschi KC was Drumgold’s barrister.
The documents also show that on 28 April, Sofronoff texted a pdf to Albrechtsen. The next day, she published a piece saying the inquiry’s terms of reference had been broadened to examine Drumgold and his conduct.
Other texts show Sofronoff texting Albrechtsen “strictly confidential” documents. On 6 May, he sent two pdfs which were described as the statements of two prosecutors involved in Lehrmann’s trial.
“Strictly confidential,” he said.
“What a thing to do to two young professionals under your mentorship.”
Albrechtsen replied: “Thank you. Agreed on all counts.”
Sofronoff’s final report found that Drumgold had “preyed” on the inexperience of a junior solicitor by making him advance a false claim to prevent defence lawyers accessing police documents.
The texts also reveal Albrechtsen criticised her paper’s front page, which pictured Drumgold drinking a beer outside his home under the headline “Crown lager or Drumgold bitter? Prosecutor calls beer o’clock”.
“I do not like our front page today,” she wrote to a barrister on the inquiry.
The columnist also told Sofronoff that he was the subject of memes.
“You may not realise that memes are being made about you. Ones you may like.”
She later sent him a photo comparing him to Winston “The Wolf” Wolf from the film Pulp Fiction.
The documents also show Sofronoff had dealings with other journalists, though less extensive, including News Corp’s Samantha Maiden and the ABC’s Elizabeth Byrne.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from the ACT supreme court.
The ACT attorney general did not respond with comment.
