Court fight over Bruce Lehrmann’s diary that allegedly contains eight pages of classified information

The contents of a diary written by Bruce Lehrmann that was seized from his home have to be declassified by the federal government to be returned to him, a court has been told. The ex-political staffer is suing the federal special minister of state, Don Farrell, and the national anti-corruption commissioner, Paul Brereton, seeking legal funding to fight allegations of corruption. Officials from the corruption watchdog raided the 31-year-old’s home in June 2024 over allegations he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines from the office of former defence minister Linda Reynolds five years earlier. He denies the allegations and has filed federal court proceedings in an attempt to compel the government to fund his fight against the corruption investigation. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email A skirmish around a blue diary seized from his home is on foot, with the government claiming it contains eight pages of classified security information. The commonwealth’s barrister Bora Kaplan SC told the court on Thursday that the remainder of the diary could be returned to Lehrmann for use in the case after it was declassified. Justice Brigitte Markovic noted the 31-year-old had written the diary and had himself designated the contents “classified” but was not allowed to see it. “There’s just something bizarre about that,” she said. …