Dramatic raids launched on Bruce Lehrmann’s media minder by NACC
Written by admin on August 8, 2024
EXCLUSIVE
The Australian Federal Police and NSW Police have launched a dramatic raid of the home of Bruce Lehrmann’s former media minder John Macgowan, seizing three mobile phones and a laptop in an investigation he claims is an “insane conspiracy theory” into the potential leaking of documents related to the submarine deal.
Mr Macgowan, who described the investigation as baseless, claims up to 20 National Anti-Corruption Commission officers raided his girlfriend’s Earlwood home in June in a team that included a sniffer dog, two uniformed NSW police to secure the property and an AFP officer.
Mr Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, said her client was aware of the NACC investigation and denied the allegations.
“The NACC’s wild conspiracy theory about Bruce holding French submarine secrets is pure fantasy, what’s next he really is 007?,’’ Ms Burrows said.
In an exclusive interview with news.com.au, Mr Macgowan has described the allegations as an “insane conspiracy” that he said to a journalist in a conversation as “a joke” that he now understands was recorded.
Mr Macgowan says he told the NACC in an interview that he voluntarily agreed that neither he nor Mr Lehrmann were or ever possessed any such documents. He is calling on the NACC to return his phones.
Sniffer dogs involved in NACC raid for computers, laptops, documents
“The only thing they didn’t raid was my snake tank,” Mr Macgowan said.
“Documents, phones, anything they could get their hands on about this nebulous investigation.
“Basically, the allegation is. (Bruce Lehrmann) was in the office stealing top-secret submarine documents and gave them to me to sell. It’s not true. And I know it’s not true. It’s a made-up story,” he said.
“There were 20 NACC officers. I am not f***ing joking. There were 20 people. I counted them.”
Mr Macgowan said sniffer dogs were present, and the NACC went through his girlfriend’s underwear drawer.
“They said ‘no, no, this is not the cocaine dogs. It’s the paper dogs’. It’s called Operation Ivanhoe. I read it in their notebooks when they were walking around,” he said.
“You’ve got to communicate with people about when the investigation is over. I am just sitting here thinking, “when is the next raid coming?”
“I volunteered to do an interview. There’s zero truth to it. It was a made up story promoted by the conspiracy theorists on Twitter.”
Submarine documents claims in defamation trial
During his evidence in the defamation trial he brought against Channel 10, Mr Lehrmann said that he returned to Parliament House on the night Ms Higgins alleged she was raped to collect his keys and spent about 30 to 40 minutes working on Question Time briefs relating to the French submarine deal before departing.
Grilled about what could have been so important he needed to attend the Department of Defence’s suite of offices around 2am on 23 March 2019, Mr Lehrmann told the Federal Court he had been told something about the now abandoned French submarine deal and Linda Reynolds’ “political interests” in the contract.
During the cross-examination, Mr Lehrmann said he was concerned about national security because he had question time documents on his desk.
Search warrant claims regarding submarines
The search warrant provided to Mr Macgowan and sighted by news.com.au, states that the investigation relates to potential offences under the criminal code.
It states that the search warrant is based on “reasonable grounds for suspecting that they will afford evidence of that offence, namely, between March and April 2019 at Canberra in Australian Capital Territory. Bruce Emery Lehrmann, being a Commonwealth public official, engaged in conduct as a Commonwealth public official, and did so with the intention of dishonestly obtaining a benefit for himself or another person. John Alex McGowan” contrary to the Criminal Code.”
A search warrant executed at Mr Macgowan’s girlfriend’s home states that the National Anti-Corruption Commission is seeking “documents concerning any submarine deal, program or procurement (including but not limited to the Future Submarine Program (FSP), Attack class submarine contracts, plans, diagrams reports).
It also states the NACC is searching for any documents concerning the Australian Defence Force, the Department of Defence or the Royal Australian Navy” and any documents relating to Defence Industry suppliers, vendors or contractors including but not limited to Thales, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, (TKMS).
NACC seizes communications with news.com.au
The National Anti-Corruption Watchdog also seized communications in January 2023 between Mr Macgowan and news.com.au when he provided a copy of the Moller report.
“It’s true. I’ve got nothing to hide. I admitted to it,” Mr Macgowan said.
“I said I am happy to cooperate with anything you know. But they were only interested in this insane conspiracy.
The leaked report related to a document about the investigation into the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, informally known as the Moller Report, which was prepared for internal police purposes, detailing whether charges should be pursued.
In the report, Superintendent Moller described Ms Higgins as “evasive”, “uncooperative” and “manipulative”.
When he was asked during the inquiry if the report was highly critical of Ms Higgins, Superintendent Moller disagreed.
“I think it’s an account of the investigation and what came out of the investigation,” he told the inquiry.
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He later conceded that he could have included in the report more details about inaccuracies in Mr Lehrmann’s version of events between the pair.
“Could I have put some of those details in my report? I could have, I accept that, but I was highlighting what I thought were the key issues,” he said.
Superintendent Moller also spoke at the inquiry about the ‘“significant pressure” he and his colleagues felt to charge Mr Lehrmann.
