Bombshell legal move by TV newsman who lined up Bruce Lehrmann tell-all amid wild drugs and hookers claims

The former Spotlight producer who helped secure a tell-all TV interview with accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann is now taking legal action against the Seven Network.

Taylor Auerbach made sensational claims last year about courting Lehrmann which included the one-time political staffer allegedly buying cocaine and hiring sex workers, and Seven covering those costs.

Seven said at the time it had always acted appropriately and had never reimbursed Lehrmann for spending money on illegal drugs or prostitutes. 

Auerbach has now engaged defamation law firm Giles George to launch proceedings against the media network in the Federal Court.

Daily Mail Australia understands Auerbach’s statement of claim relates to what he alleges were public misrepresentations made about him by Seven.

Those alleged misrepresentations are believed to relate to Seven’s dealings with Auerbach in relation to his work with Lehrmann and the manner in which he departed Spotlight.

A story published on news.com.au in March last year stated a Spotlight employee had used a corporate card to buy Lehrmann a Thai massage in November 2022.

It soon emerged that employee was Auerbach and he was sacked from his job as a producer at Sky News Australia within days of the story being published.  

Auerbach then made a move which thrust him briefly into the centre of Lehrmann’s defamation action against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann had sued Ten and Wilkinson over a February 2021 interview on The Project in which Brittany Higgins alleged she had been raped on a couch at Parliament House almost two years earlier.

While Ms Higgins did not name Lehrmann, the political staffer claimed he was easily identifiable as the colleague she said sexually assaulted her in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds.

Justice Michael Lee had reserved his judgment when Auerbach unexpectedly came forward with allegations Seven had provided perks to Lehrmann to talk to Spotlight.

Auerbach further claimed he had subsequently been offered a promotion and pay rise. 

The defamation trial had heard Lehrmann’s rent was covered for a year in exchange for his Spotlight interview at a cost of about $105,000. 

Auerbach claimed Seven not only covered Lehrmann’s accommodation, but that it spent thousands of dollars on cocaine, prostitutes, and Thai massages.

The court heard Lehrmann had purchased cocaine during a trip to Sydney, where Auerbach had been appointed as his ‘babysitter’.

‘I had been reappointed to be his babysitter, minder, looking after him… building up a rapport trying to build trust and some sort of relationship with a prospective interview subject,’ Auerbach told the court.

Auerbach said that while the pair had dinner one night at a Potts Point restaurant, Lehrmann had purchased drugs and discussed ordering prostitutes.

‘And during that conversation he agreed to be in a Spotlight interview as long as we didn’t ask him about what happened on the night in Canberra,’ Auerbach told the court.

A Seven spokesman said at the time the network did not reimburse Lehrmann for ‘expenditure that has allegedly been used to pay for illegal drugs or prostitutes, and has never done so’.

Later that month, Justice Lee found Lehrmann had not been defamed and that on the balance of probabilities he had raped Ms Higgins.

Auerbach’s evidence had led Justice Lee to accept Lehrmann was ‘less than candid’ in his recollection of how the Spotlight interview came about, and the compensation he received from the network. 

The defamation case came after Lehrmann, who has always denied raping Ms Higgins, faced a criminal trial which was abandoned due to juror misconduct in 2022.

Lehrmann has appealed Justice Lee’s findings and is facing unrelated rape allegations in Queensland. 

Auerbach has founded a company called Bubbles Media and is studying law.