‘Conspiracy theorist’: Higgins’ husbands texts revealed
Written by admin on August 22, 2024
The husband of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins told a journalist he believed the then government had “outsourced bots” to attack him online, newly released court documents reveal.
Hundreds of messages between David Sharaz and journalist Samantha Maiden, who first broke the story of Ms Higgins’ rape in Parliament House, were released by the WA Supreme Court this week.
It comes as senator Linda Reynolds’ continues her defamation case against Ms Higgins – who had been her employee – over a series of social media posts the senator alleges were defamatory.
The text messages chronicle early interactions between Mr Sharaz and the news.com.au journalist from January 2021 until November of that year and reveal the former media adviser’s paranoia.
In a text message dated February 19, 2021, Mr Sharaz told Ms Maiden he “can see why PMO hate us. It all looks planned haha”, referring to the office of then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
A few days later, Mr Sharaz messaged Ms Maiden that “Brit (Brittany Higgins) and I are regretting all of this”, before adding that he believed the government “seems to have gotten away with it”.
Ms Maiden replied asking if Mr Sharaz was referring to the Newspoll at the time and that if he wanted “to deliver change to parliament”, inquiries into Ms Higgins’ claims were “not nothing”.
In early messages, Mr Sharaz kept Ms Maiden abreast of the changing timeline of the public airing of the allegations, including questions about whether it would “make a splash” or was worth doing.
As the weeks and months rolled on, Mr Sharaz told Ms Maiden after she encouraged him to “just stand back and support her” that he was “not her (Ms Higgins) agent. I am her partner.
“I am in a weird space about leaving her alone and not letting her feel she’s gotta do it all. But I’ve never been in this situation before and I don’t want to f**k it up,” Mr Sharaz said.
In later messages, Mr Sharaz asked Ms Maiden to tell him if his messages were “not helpful” because he felt like “a producer haha”, and again he reiterated the government “got away with it”.
In response, Ms Maiden told Mr Sharaz “the idea they got away with it it’s I think the depression talking”, and that it was a “bizarre interpretation of what had happened”.
The following month, in one of the more obscure messages, Mr Sharaz said he had faced abuse on Twitter and claimed he knew “for a fact they (the government) outsourced bots”.
After asking about the Gaetjens inquiry into who in the PMO knew about Ms Higgins’ allegations on August 30, Mr Sharaz said Ms Maiden was “far more trusting” of the government than him.
In response, Ms Maiden said: “It’s not about trust. It’s about commonsense. They would be very cautious about doing anything that could impact the trial.”
Mr Sharaz later added: “I don’t want to sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist but given they have done all they can to keep it quiet for 2 years, I don’t think they’re morally sound.
“I don’t doubt for a second they’d lie and do all they can to get this out of the news, out of the courts and off the agenda. Can I call you soon? Unless you’re busy.”
Those messages were the last substantial texts released by the court, with Ms Sharaz sharing a number of attachments with Ms Maiden through 2021 and into early-2022.
