Latest anti-Semitic incident. Up my way Sat evening. Media busy pixelating business and owner but google Flinders Tobacco in Flinders…
Latest anti-Semitic incident. Up my way Sat evening. Media busy pixelating business and owner but google Flinders Tobacco in Flinders…
Blue Poles at least went up in value.
Crossie, I picked up the wrong piece. It was this one https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/we-can-easily-turn-into-the-unlucky-country-rob-scott-and-ceos-stark-productivity-warning/news-story/ce401a4b33fb3164f63a68b2ac8d829e
A pathway scattered with OPM. Ha, billionaires don’t want to risk their own billions.
Death lasers for farmer Cats! Farming Robot Kills 200,000 Weeds Per Hour With Lasers (25 Nov) Unlike its predecessor, the…
Muddy!
Muddy.
Nation of Muddy.
Yeah, I’m over it now.
muddy who?
Muhhhhddy.
It’s so worth sacrificing sleep for this.
Just read Fiona Brown’s account of the destruction of her career in the Oz.
She joins a lengthening queue including Bruce Lehrman, Shane Drumgold, Katy Gallagher, Scott Morrison, Linda Reynolds with more to come.
BritKnee Trembler is a doomsday machine.
Brittany, Bruce and the โbetrayalโ of the invisible woman
Fiona Brown feels betrayed. First by Brittany Higgins. Then by her own party. The forgotten victim in the sorry mess of the Higgins/Lehrmann rape saga is finally ready to have her say.
By JANET ALBRECHTSEN and STEPHEN RICE
Fiona Brown feels betrayed. First by Brittany Higgins. Then by her own party. Then, most painfully, by a man she respected greatly: the former prime minister of Australia, Scott Morrison.
Brown is the forgotten victim in the sorry mess of the Higgins/Lehrmann rape saga, ruthlessly pursued by Labor to bolster its claim of a political cover-up, cast aside by her Liberal Party colleagues when she became, to them, a liability.
It left her, as she puts it, โthe dead carcass on the road โ you drive by and wonder what happened to itโ.
The end of Brownโs long and distinguished career of public service arrived unexpectedly, on the evening of February 15, 2021, when she sat down with colleagues in the press office at Parliament House to watch Lisa Wilkinsonโs much-hyped interview with Higgins.
One fellow staffer had warned her earlier: โItโs going to be brutal.โ
โI thought โ what did they know that I didnโt know?โ
She had no idea she was about to take a starring role as a chief ยฌvillain โ second only to the alleged rapist โ in the story Higgins told. But Bruce Lehrmann wasnโt named in the program. Brown was.
โWhy is she doing this?โ
Higgins claimed Brown knew she had been raped in the office of then-minister Linda Reynolds; that Brown had viewed the CCTV footage from that night; that Brown had refused half a dozen ยฌrequests from Higgins to see the footage; that Brown had not supported Higgins after that night, and in fact offered Higgins a โpayoutโ to get her out of the way in the lead up to the election.
Brown was dumbstruck.
โThe first time my name comes up, I go, โOh, thatโs a bit uncomfortableโ; the second time; the third time, and Iโm starting to feel really sick; and then the fourth time and all these things that are being said, Iโm just going โwhat the f..k is going on here? This is not what happened. Why is she doing this?โ
โIt was like standing in front of a firing squad. And it was the day that my life ended, as I knew it. I just broke down and my colleagues around me had to witness me fall apart.
โThe worst thing you can say about a woman is she walked past another womanโs rape.โ
None of it was true, Brown says, not even the claim she had seen โ or could somehow obtain โ CCTV footage of Higgins and Lehrmann in Parliament House on the night.
โI never saw it. She never asked me for it. And even if you asked me today, how would I get it? I would have no idea.โ
A colleague insisted on driving Brown home that night, โfor which I was very grateful, because I thought I could drive but, ยฌfrankly, I would have killed myself or killed somebodyโ.
Brown has kept her silence ever since.
When the politics of the rape claim and the cover-up allegation rocked the Morrison government, she remained quiet. Though she was targeted in parliament and in the media for months on end, she didnโt speak up.
She assured police that she would not speak to the media as she didnโt want to undermine a prosecution. They thanked her for that co-operation with the prosecutorial process. That judicial process is now over after the DPP abandoned a proposed re-trial, citing Higginsโ mental health.
During more than six hours of interviews with The Weekend Australian, Brown asks only one thing: that we view her story not through the lens of today, or of the day two years ago when Higgins went public with her claim of rape, but, rather, as she watched it ยฌunfold four years ago.
โI went to work one day. This is what happened to me. Iโm not here to tell you what to think. Iโm not here to defend. Iโm not here to protect. Iโm here just to tell you what happened to me when I went to work one day.โ
โSecurity breachโ
Monday, March 25, 2019, was like any other busy day in the Parliament House office of defence ยฌindustry minister Linda Reynolds, as far as Brown can recall now.
She was in Reynoldsโ office on a three-week stint, on loan from the Prime Ministerโs office to help the newly appointed minister ยฌsettle in.
She knows she must have spoken to Higgins that day because she signed and certified a copy of her driverโs licence for some ยฌadministrative paperwork.
โSo she sees me and she says nothing, nothing,โ says Brown, shaking her head, still bewildered more than four years on from the moment that changed her life.
It wasnโt until the next day, at 11.45am, that Brown got a call from Lauren Barons, an official with the Department of Finance โ the agency responsible for Parliament House staffing arrangements โ ยฌinforming her that there had been a serious security breach in the ministerโs office at the weekend.
There was little detail. Lehrmann and Higgins had made an unauthorised access of the office in the early hours of Saturday. Lehrmann had then left; Higgins had later been found naked on a couch by a security guard.
โI said, โOh my God, what ยฌhappened?โ Lauren said, โI donโt know.โ She said, โthis is what youโve got to do. These are serious security breaches.โโ
The situation was outside anything either Brown or Barons had dealt with, but Brown followed the instructions she had been given.
She called Lehrmann in first.
The young staffer had previously committed a security breach over the mishandling of a sensitive document and was due to leave the job in coming days.
Tell me what happened, she asked. Why were you here? She recalls the conversation:
Lehrmann: I came to have a whisky.
Brown: Why would you come back for whisky at that time of night?
Lehrmann: Ah, people do it all the time.
Brown: Ah, no, I donโt think so.
โWhat was going on?โ she says now. โI wasnโt sure, I didnโt have anything at that point.โ
Lehrmann said the pair were not intoxicated.
Brown thought it was possible theyโd had sex, but she had no idea of their relationship.
โIt was none of my business,โ she says. โFor all I knew they were dating. I donโt get into peopleโs personal relationships โฆ Iโd only been there 10 days.โ
She says she was trying to use neutral, non-leading questions, concerned that probing into their private life could be used against her. Brown says Barons had been very clear, over the phone, in her instructions: โYou canโt put things in an accusatory tone to someone โ youโve got to let them tell you what happened.โ
โI invite you to go back to that time frame,โ Brown says now, โnot two years later, after The Project interview. What I was dealing with was, I had a HR issue and a disciplinary issue.
โI told Bruce I was disappointed he didnโt disclose after-hours access to me because, of course, Iโd seen him earlier. Heโd said that that was wrong and he apologised.โ
Lehrmann left the office ยฌimmediately. โAnd then I took a few deep breaths and called Brittany in. I think she knew something was afoot, because when she walks in, sheโs all very ha ha, and then she sees the paperwork on my desk. The employee assistance program (EAP) and the ministerial statement standards.โ
Brown asked Higgins if she would like someone with her. ยฌHiggins said no.
Brown began: โI understand you came in after hours. Who did you come with? What did you do? Where did you go?โ
Higgins told her she had been out drinking and recalled coming in through the Parliament House security checkpoint.
โI remember her saying she woke with her dress up around her. Now that was different to Lauren Barons telling me she was naked. And I said: โIs everything ยฌall right? Has something ยฌhappened?โโ
โNo, Iโm responsible for what I drink and my actions,โ she recalls Higgins saying. โSo I took a lot of comfort from what she was saying. Sheโd been on a night out. There was no ยฌallegation.
โAfter I talked to her, I said, โLook, you need to remind yourself of your responsibilities here.โ I said, โRemember, if youโre unhappy with something you have our support.โโ
Again, Brown thought it was possible theyโd had sex but didnโt feel she could make the ยฌaccusation directly.
โI would have thought that was inappropriate. Like, they could complain about me, saying: how dare you say that to me.
โI have a responsibility to both. I canโt put ideas in anyoneโs head. All I can do is provide a supportive environment. Thatโs why I kept using the phrase: has anything happened that you didnโt want to ยฌhappen?โ
โCall the policeโ
Brown agrees she wanted Higgins to understand the seriousness of the security breach.
โThis wasnโt a playground. This wasnโt a sandpit, this was the defence industry ministerโs office and had we won the election and she chose to stay on, she had the opportunity to work in a defence ministerโs office. Thatโs pretty ยฌserious shit. And the thing about young people in these jobs is that there are two types: those that take it very seriously and those who get drunk on power, and it corrupts them.โ Lehrmann and Higgins were both in the latter category, she says.
โBruce was a very hard worker, very smart. But, you know, a little drunk on the power, and immature; you know, the responsibility was disproportionate.
โBut what we were finding is this bracket creep of young smart people who had enormous ability being given classifications beyond their ability to maturely deal with that and cope with that.โ
Brown reported the meetings to Reynolds, who was travelling.
Wednesday passed without ยฌincident. Brown checked in with Higgins that she was OK and Higgins told her she was accessing the EAP program to which Brown had referred her.
But Higgins was away from the office much of the day.
โI was always chasing after her like I was her mother,โ she says. โI texted her, I rang her, I checked in with her.โ
Brown was again following ยฌadvice from the department not to harass, giving Higgins โspace and respectโ.
On the Thursday Higgins came into Brownโs office to return the signed statement of ministerial standards.
โSo then I said to her, โThanks very much. By the way, weโre ยฌalways here. If anything comes to mind, you want to talk about anything.โ She says thanks. And then sheโs walking out the door and she just pivots around and says, โOh, I remember him on top of me.โ
โAnd I thought โf..kโ. And I said, โWhat?โ
โI said, โAre you all right?โ And sheโs just staring at me. And I said, โDid something happen that you didnโt want to have happen?โ I get up and walk over and I say: โDo you want to sit down? Can I get you a cup of tea?โ No. โA glass of water?โ No. โWould you like to make a complaint?โ And she shakes her head to say no and I go, โOK, what do I do with this?โ
โThatโs when she says โthanksโ. She said she was taking the counselling and her father was coming down for the weekend. So I expected I would get a call if something had happened.โ
Brown told Reynolds what Higgins had said. Reynolds rang Brown and told her go to the police to make a report. Brown thought that was untenable: โAm I supposed to go and accuse a young man of a criminal offence without the female telling me she was raped?โ
The loyal public servant was willing to put her career on the line, and refuse a ministerโs direction, rather than report a rape to the police without permission from Higgins.
โI rang Lauren. She said, โNo, you canโt do that. Youโve got to give the woman agency. Itโs her right as to making a report to police.โ
โI said to Barons: โI might have to come to talk to you about my termination this afternoon. In my mind, she [Reynolds] was within her rights to sack me.โ
But Barons confirmed in an email that Brown was taking ยฌโappropriateโ steps to protect Higgins and that โultimately any decision as to whether to lodge a police report or pursue any other form of complaint relating to this matter would be a personal choice of the person involvedโ.
Instead, on Friday afternoon, Brown rang Higgins to ask her if she wanted Brown to make a ยฌreport to police on her behalf. Higgins said no.
The following week, on April 1, Reynolds and Brown met with Higgins.
Brown had assured Higgins that Reynolds was โlovely, really niceโ, and wanted to check on the young staffer. Even though Higgins had still not made any allegation of rape or assault, Reynolds suggested that the young woman speak to the police.
Brown found the phone number of the Australian Federal Police based in Parliament House and located the offices โ in the basement, a rabbit warren of a place. It was Brown who phoned them and set up the meeting.
โI go down there, I find out where they are, I go back and I say [to Higgins] โIโll come with you โcause itโs really hard to find. Would you like me to go in with you to have a support person?โ No. โWould you like me to wait outside?โ No. โWould you like to call me and Iโll come back and get you?โ No. โCould you let me know when youโre back?โ Yes.
โThen, about an hour and a half had passed, she hadnโt let me know. So I was panicked. Where is she? Is she all right? She was back in the office.โ
When Brown asked how Higgins was, she said she was fine.
Two years later, in court, Higgins would say that days after this meeting, on Thursday, April 4, she went into an office bathroom for hours, crying from anxiety. That wasnโt true. She was at a long lunch, a farewell to her old boss Steven Ciobo.
The looming federal election soon consumed Brownโs attention. Higgins was asked if she wanted to work from the Gold Coast or go to Perth for the election campaign where Reynolds, a WA senator, would spend her time. Higgins decided to head to Perth, taking the white cocktail dress from the night of the alleged rape with her.
On June 7, 2019, after the ยฌre-election of the Morrison government, Higgins sent Brown a message: โI wanted to say this in person but โ I cannot overstate how much Iโve valued your support and advice throughout this period. Youโve been absolutely incredible and Iโm so appreciative.โ
The Project bombshell
Brown asks us to imagine her ยฌdisbelief and devastation when, less than two years after that warm thank you, Higgins appeared on national television to claim that, not only was she raped, but that Brown was complicit in the crime.
On The Project interview, Higgins said that Brown had walked past the rape of a young woman, that Brown had tried to cover it up, that Brown had tried to offer commonwealth funds to get Higgins out of the picture in the lead up to an election.
Shocking claims against any person, let alone a woman like Brown, who herself has experienced the deep trauma of domestic violence in a previous relationship.
โHow could you think it was OK to do that to another human being?โ she asks. โIโm a human being. Iโm actually someone who cared for her. I worried about her.โ
Brown can only guess at why Higgins chose to make these claims.
โShe had to have a villain โ apart from the rape in the office story โ on the political conspiracy side that story needed a villain. She needed to present stuff as facts in order to justify or convey her feelings โ and thatโs why she did this to me โ so I was the villain.โ
Despite a long and distinguished career, many people outside of politics had never set eyes on Brown. She had worked for Ian Temby QC at the NSW ICAC, then moved into senior roles in the Greiner government, then federal politics advising then immigration minister Philip Ruddock.
After a stint working at Ernst & Young in London, Brown returned to politics, working with Arthur Sinodinos in John Howardโs office, then becoming chief of staff to Sinodinos when he became a senator. Brownโs most ยฌrecent role was director of operations for prime minister Scott Morrison.
When the rape scandal broke, the media couldnโt locate a single photo or social media post of the understated, highly respected Brown.
Brown dealt with the fallout from the accusations the only way she knew how: she kept turning up for work. โI had no other way to communicate that I had done nothing wrong. I was just trying to survive.โ
She describes the relentless trauma of what was unfolding around her in the aftermath of the rape accusations โ TVs on 24/7 in the office, meetings behind closed doors where she knew she was being talked about, newspapers, radio covering it daily. Brown didnโt keep her mental health struggles private.
She asked for help from Morrisonโs chief of staff, John Kunkel, and others. She started seeing a therapist.
Brown found herself a pariah in her own office. โNo one came out and disputed Higginsโ claims โ I couldnโt, I wasnโt an MP.โ
She wanted to take legal action against Ten for defamation but was told by senior people in PMO that a legal claim would just make the story bigger. And the #MeToo movement was in full swing.
โNo one wanted to go against the movement,โ she says. โIt was such a febrile environment that for me to come out against Higgins โ I was already being pilloried. Theyโd drawn the PMO into this and if I went to the media I would have exacerbated it.
โThey didnโt think it was a good idea. Itโll run out of steam in two weeks,โ they told her.
It didnโt. Brownโs career was disappearing before her eyes.
Work responsibilities were taken from her with no explanation. Some ministers wouldnโt even say hello.
She recalls former health minister Greg Hunt as a notable exception. โHe was good โ he genuinely cared how I was.โ
To her surprise, no one came to her after The Project aired to ask if Higgins had told her she had been raped.
Certainly not the prime minister, she says.
โWeโve spoken, right?โ
Three days after The Project ยฌinterview, Brown says the bullets kept coming. Only this time from the prime minister.
โI remember him coming back after question time on that Thursday โฆ and for the first time he said: โHow are you?โโ Brown recalls.
โHe has never sat down or even walked by and had a proper discussion with me after the issue ยฌexploded. The most discussion I ever had with him was in that -moment. That was the extent of it, a two-minute conversation: โHi Fiona, how are you?โ
โI said, โOh, itโs pretty tough.โ And I apologised to him. I said, โIโm sorry theyโre using me to get to you. Iโm really sorry about that. But she never, never told me.
โAnd then the only thing he says in relation to this matter ever is: โWeโve spoken.โ Thatโs it.
โโWeโve spoken, havenโt weโ.โ And then he walked off.
Earlier that afternoon, in question time, in response to questions from Anthony Albanese as to whether Morrison had spoken to Brown about threatening Higginsโ job, and not supporting her, Morrison told parliament that โI have had these conversations with the member of staff. Iโm happy to indicate I have had conversations about the support provided by the member of my staff now. I have discussed with her those matters.โ
A day or so later, Brown read Hansard. โThat was it. I realised at that moment that I was collateral damage.โ
Brown made a note to herself, once she read Hansard and ยฌrealised precisely what the prime minister had said, given that he had never met with her about these events, โI was devastated. I felt grubby.โ
โCould you imagine how it felt? I thought he genuinely came by to check how I was. I hadnโt really heard question time. And then when he came by, I was like, oh my God, heโs asking how I am. And then that comment triggered me and I went, huh?โ
Brown says she told many ยฌpeople, including Kunkel, โheโs never spoken to meโ.
Morrison told The Weekend Australian: โI understood my statement to be accurate to the House. I regularly saw Ms Brown in the office and would ask how she was going. Specifics of ยฌmatters relating to the incident were the subject of many other processes that I did not seek to interfere with.โ
Morrison said he accepted that Brown may have had a different expectation about what such a conversation should have entailed, hence her recollection.
โI had not sat down with Ms Brown over these issues in the same way as I had with Ms Higgins,โ he says. โI note the latter meeting was arranged at Ms Higginsโ request. I meant no disrespect or insensitivity to Ms Brown, as there were many competing ยฌissues I had to address as prime minister.
โMs Brown continued to do an outstanding job in my office during a very stressful period and I am very appreciative of her contribution and professionalism.โ
Brown says she had a mental breakdown.
โIt was like a pillow over your face,โ she says.
She says she didnโt keep those mental health struggles private. She asked people in her office for help. In her darkest moment she tried to take her own life.
She can remember the day she walked down a path to the beach.
โI sat on the bench there. It was like a black hole, a space, thereโs nothing,โ she says.
โI had decided I would swim out. I figured that if I drowned or got taken by a shark, it would be less traumatic for my family โ they wouldnโt have to live with all the guilt that I killed myself.
โBut a surfer came by and said are you OK? He grabbed my hand and then took me in.
โI sat on the beach and just bawled my eyes out.โ
But Brown returned to the ยฌoffice. โIf I left I thought they wouldnโt see me as a person. Thatโs why Iโm so hurt by John [Kunkel]. I asked John, can you help me? I humiliated myself and said, can you help me? I watched other people get help from [from PMO] into new jobs. I didnโt ยฌexpect to be an ambassador, I would have been an EA somewhere else.โ
But Brown was not helped into a new job.
Why did her own work colleagues, right up to the prime minister, let her down so badly?
โTheyโre all fearful, theyโre all scared. Everyone was out for themselves. Because no one ยฌwanted to be Fiona Brown.โ
A year later, still turning up to work each day, the senior staffer would face another earthquake.
The PMโs apology
Brown wanted to go to the chamber on February 8, 2022.
It was the first sitting day and the prime minister was going to make a statement, as recommended in the Jenkins Review, to ยฌacknowledge the harassment, bullying and other poor behaviour to women in parliament.
Brown told colleagues: โIโd like to be there for that apology. I think that applies to me.โ She was told it was a bad idea, and she knew that. The media would have lapped up the image of her and Higgins watching the PM.
She walked around to the press office instead and watched as the prime minister apologised to ยฌHiggins. โIโm sorry. We are sorry,โ he said. โI am sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here.โ
Brown was gobsmacked. The PM had not just thrown out the presumption of innocence for a man accused of rape. He had thrown her under the bus โand run over several timesโ when he effectively sided with Higginsโ claims about her mistreatment by Brown and Reynolds.
โI walked around to Kunkelโs office and I said to him: โThis is a very sad day in Australiaโs history.โ And he just looks at me. I didnโt mean him personally, but I said: โYouโve turned the parliament into a kangaroo court. Youโve just sentenced a young man for a crime that has not been prosecuted or proven.โ
โI just stood there, then I ยฌwalked out. He said nothing.
โIt was one of the many times I went into the visitorsโ bathroom, locked myself in and cried.
โHe [the PM] had sentenced me without even talking to me. I was crushed. I was sentenced for being the perpetrator, ignoring a rape.โ
Brown was equally distressed when Morrison met with Higgins. Brown had arrived at the prime ministerial offices in Sydney that day โ and was told not to stay. The PM was meeting ยฌHiggins there.
Brown left the office.
โI watched it on the news,โ she says. โCould you just imagine what the feeling was like that your boss gives someone else the time of day, but he doesnโt give you the time of day?โ
If there was any small comfort for Brown in the days ahead, it was that Lehrmannโs trial was coming up and she had been called as a witness.
She would at last get a chance to tell her story.
The trial
True to form, Brown entered the ACT Supreme Court far from the heaving media pack, around the back, from Vernon Circle, Canberraโs famous ring road.
She took the stand in courtroom Number 3 at 10.41am on ยฌOctober 11.
Over the course of the day, until she was excused as a witness just after 2pm, the senior staffer would not be given the chance to counter the most serious allegations against her.
Brown could at least set the ยฌrecord straight about the CCTV footage when asked during cross-examination by Steven Whybrow whether she had ever seen the footage of Higgins walking into Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
Brown was emphatic. โIโve never seen the footage.โ
Did the CCTV footage ever come up in conversation? โNo. Never.โ
In yet another twist, Higgins would see the footage before Brown, when AFP Detective Superintendent Scott Moller agreed to show her it after her persistent requests in the lead up to the trial.
Brown saw the controversial footage for the first time when it was shown on the Seven Networkโs Spotlight interview with Lehrmann last Sunday night.
The CCTV footage shows Higgins smiling and skipping through the corridor after she has gone through security, with little sign of the high level of drunkenness she had claimed.
The trial also allowed Brown to explain her support for Higgins. She recounted how she asked Higgins during the first meeting: โAre you OK? Has something happened that you didnโt want to happen?โ
Just before the trial paused for lunch, Brown broke down in tears when Whybrow read out the text message that Higgins had sent her former boss thanking her for her support.
After Brown was excused, and the jury left the room, Whybrow told the Chief Justice that ยฌHiggins had deleted the text from her phone.
Brown says hearing Higginsโ text, recognising her support for the young woman, was a ยฌโreminderโ of that time compared to where Brown found herself 2ยฝ years later, portrayed and persecuted as a villain.
โIt was jarring, it was so ยฌobvious that the chasm between the two [periods in her life] was so deep,โ she says.
When Higgins returned to the stand, on October 14, having a break for mental health reasons, she told the jury that Brown and Reynolds said โthey would pay me out the entirety of the election to go to the Gold Coast, but that โฆ I would never have a job againโ.
Brown was distressed by what she says was a false assertion by Higgins that she had been induced by an offer of public funds by Brown. โI felt that was an -accusation of corruption.โ
But once again, Brown was ยฌdenied the ability to correct the ยฌrecord. She emailed the DPPโs ยฌoffice that same day, pointing out that she had been misrepresented by Higgins. Brown wanted her to be recalled. She didnโt ยฌreceive a reply.
Six months later, the Sofronoff Inquiry would hear that Brownโs email pointing out the discrepancy was never disclosed to ยฌWhybrow, meaning the defence was not given the chance to recall Brown.
During the board of inquiry into the ACT justice systemโs handling of the Lehrmann/Higgins matter, Whybrow described Brown as โthe most important witness in this case because sheโs the only person that had taken contemporaneous notes of what happenedโ.
Worse was to come for Brown. During his closing remarks, the DPP used Brownโs breakdown in the witness box against her, implying some kind of guilt.
Higgins had every reason to fear political forces conspiring against her, the DPP told the jury. The implication was that Brown had something to hide.
Brown watched reports of the DPPs closing on live feeds in the media.
โHe just sought to discredit me in every way,โ she says. โWhen I heard that statement, I felt like another person had thrown me under the bus and I didnโt think there was much left of me by that stage.โ
She wasnโt invested in Higgins or Lehrmann โ โIโd always seen myself as Switzerland. I just wanted the truth โ I just wanted to be a good witness. I wanted to do the right thing.โ
Brown felt so let down by how the DPP behaved towards her that she complained to the ACT Bar Association, and she has lodged a statement with the Sofronoff -Inquiry.
Asked about Brownโs claim Higgins lied, a spokesman for ยฌHiggins referred The Weekend Australian to the court transcript for her statements about Brownโs involvement, noting that Higginsโ evidence was given under oath.
The terrible things
Brown has received half-baked apologies from some media outlets, including ARN over a Jonesy and Amanda segment after The Logies, and from Nine over The Logies where Brown was once again defamed.
For Brown, itโs not enough.
Acres of newsprint have been given over to the destructive impact the case has had on the two young people at the centre of it, Brittany Higgins and Bruce -Lehrmann.
Brown reminds us that the lives of two older women โ hers and Senator Reynoldsโ โ have also been irrevocably damaged.
โThis has destroyed my life, my career, my livelihood,โ she says simply.
Brown is no longer a political staffer. โIโm just trying to get my life back together,โ she says.
She regrets not speaking up sooner, but she had been determined to do the right thing at every stage: following departmental advice, taking Higgins to the police, offering support, absorbing the blows in the media and in parliament in silence, going along with the prime ministerโs ruse that he had spoken to her, watching as the PM jumped on board the #metoo juggernaut and chose to save his own skin at the expense of hers.
If there was anyone who owed her an apology, who would it be?
Thereโs a long pause.
โWowโ, she says finally. ยฌโImagine if youโve got an apology from Brittany Higgins. Donโt think thatโs ever going to happen.โ
Would she like that?
โItโs a raw question because Iโm still processing that. I donโt think Iโd ever be able to get a sincere apology from her.โ
Thereโs another long pause as sheโs reminded of the words with which her old boss condemned her, in the building that was once her life.
โAnd an apology from the Prime Minister and the former prime minister for the terrible things that happened to me in that place.โ
JANET ALBRECHTSEN
COLUMNIST
STEPHEN RICE
NSW EDITOR
Done. Thanks for the heads up.
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity says:
June 10, 2023 at 1:06 am
Thanks.
J Ch. what a disturbed/rotten human being that B Higgins is, how many more will she ruin before this sorry saga is over?
Salvatore
Thanks for that – the whole “No Knickers” affair is a blot on Australian Federal Parliament & Australia
As Brown said “You have turned Australian Parliament into a Kangaroo Court
You have just sentenced a young man for a crime that had no been prosecuted or proven “
Tekweni says:
June 9, 2023 at 10:16 pm
Sorry to hear about your situation.
University of Mass. has the most advanced studies on this but a lot of other places are catching up.
The more data, the higher the likelihood of a treatment.
At some stage there will be a standard treatment for prolonged side effects of mRNA.
My heart issues only started after jab #3 in March 2022.
My sister had jab #6 last month (yes, #6) and has had zero issues.
Incredibly small sample size, but it shows that people who share genetics have vastly different outcomes.
Also, I haven’t had COVID, whereas my sister has had it twice.
The bottom line is that no-one really knows why.
But the studies will find out why at some stage.
Johannes Leak.
Brett Lethbridge.
Peter Broelman.
David Rowe.
Graeme Bandeira.
Christian Adams.
Peter Brookes TDS.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Matt Margolis.
Henry Payne.
Al Goodwyn.
Chip Bok.
Gary Varvel.
Lisa Benson.
Lee Fang (formally of the Intercept) now has proof on just how involved Pierre Omidyar was in the 2020 censorship regime.
Previously, he was known for being one of the big three contributors to the Zuck bucks slush fund with Zuckerberg (obviously) & Hoffman (LinkedIn founder for those unfamiliar).
All this was detailed in Mollie Hemingway’s book “Rigged”.
Taibbi recently went into detail showing how Omidyar started building this digital infrastructure back in 2014 to bridge between what censorship the state wanted & the social media platforms.
Fang now has proof the Omidyar funded & built the infrastructure for the Department of Homeland Security.
Billionaire Biden Donor Bankrolled 2020 Election Social Media Censorship Effort
Newly disclosed document confirms billionaire Pierre Omidyar financed the public-private partnership to censor election-related Twitter and Facebook posts.
https://www.leefang.com/p/billionaire-biden-donor-bankrolled
Imagine the squealing if Gina funded & had someone build digital infrastructure for the Morrison government that was then used to support her political views.
Bok makes the same point as happens every time Australia goes up in smoke.
The Brittany Blob envelopes kd wrong and SloMo. Can anyone stop it?
Thanks Sal for putting up the article about Fiona Brown.
I remember at the time being disgusted at PM Morrison for his apology to Higgins. Unfortunately we were then in the believe all women stage and PM chose that over the fact the trial was pending.
Note Brown part where days could not defend herself as was witness in pending trial. Same applied to Senator Reynolds as the mean girls got stuck into her. If they had spoken up they would have predjudiced the trial.
Still to come today will be Cassie’s thoughts which are always well worth the read. Although hard to beat what Fiona Brown has laid out.
Meanwhile Labor and the left are defending chief grub Katy Gallagher to the death.
Bruce very nearly got convicted on no evidence at all.
Boris Johnson booted from Parliament.
Boris Johnson QUITS as MP blaming a ‘kangaroo court’ motivated by ‘revenge for Brexit’ (9 Jun)
If he’d actually delivered Brexit it’d be sad, but he never really did since the UK is still subject to the ECJ and other legal wheezes. As for his greenery, well the less said the better. He certainly wasn’t a Thatcher.
For those who like reading indictments, here’s 49 pages of the Trump one.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.3.0.pdf
John Yoo, the guy that Pence relied on to not delay certifying the 2020 election, has been more vocal on this being total horseshit than he was regarding the NY indictment.
Snork.
John Yoo’s failings during the GWB years means he can never be considered for a judicial appointment.
Which is a pity as he’s closer to Gorsuch than Thomas (who he clerked for).
lotocoti says:
June 10, 2023 at 7:42 am
LOL, turkeys voting for Thanksgiving.
Don’t write his political obituary just yet, Bruce.
He’s hinted he’ll be back. Alas.
For a woman who usually speaks her mind, Lisa Wilkinson’s apology to Jacinta Price is rather mealy-mouthed. I suppose she has no reason to fear being hounded out of public life by the media on account of her casual racism.
Scummo the Pharisee.
Fox News Sues Tucker Carlson To STOP New Twitter Show!
The Jimmy Dore Show
Shades of when Soros linked organisations funded lawyers to go and work in DA offices ‘to help with the workload.’ In fact they were there to push leftist agendas like BLM and to persecute conservatives.
The attempts to integrate government with private actors is very disturbing indeed. Sure, there were always informal arrangements like kickbacks for contracts and jobs for the boys. But this kind of thing takes it to a whole new level. It is about hijacking policy and weaponising government organisations against political opponents.
You have to wonder to what extent it is happening here.
Haven’t seen Muddy for a while.
A case of hang together or hang separately.
I suspect none of them – Gallagher, Wong, Albanese, Dreyfus – are sleeping very well at night.
That captured many of his failures. Unfortunately, we (as a society) are probably past the point weโre he could just say that is sub judice and walk away. Maybe not. The path to under the SloMo bus was well worn. Holgate and Australia Post was equally egregious.
funny how the likes of Mariam Veiszadeh, who perceive and complain vociferously about racism and oppression of women of colour in just about every utterance and gesture by wapipo, have maintained a stony silence about Wilkinson.
I expect they will all have complete confidence in her – until they donโt. No real alternative here.
With regards to those people wailing and lamenting the injustice of Brittnah’s emails being leaked to the public – would now be a good time to remind them that “If you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about”?
Mother Lode,
Muddy was the opening act for this new thread. Scroll up. ๐
I saw Dreyfus being interviewed a day or so ago.
His trademark smirk seemed to be slipping with every weasely word.
Hi Muddy! Good to see you after such a long time. Donโt be shy in commenting, now.
That Albrechtsen piece on Fiona Brown is just extraordinary. She kept her silence all this timeโฆrespect. Yet this was a person the Canberra lightweights were happy to sacrifice, the sort the country needs in the APS.
Alsoโฆthank God for that surfer.
What a petulant little sook he is. Gifted with charm, brains and good connections, his lack of even the slightest hint of principles has always been his Achilles heel.
As for Lisa’s comments about Jacinta, not a peep from the crowd obsessed with microagressions.
Perhaps macroagressions are exempt?
Who’s Muddy?
Samantha Maiden. Is that her real name? Or is it meant to be comically incongruent – like calling a red-headed person ‘Bluey’, or a stocky person ‘Slim’?
Maiden’s are, in a literary and poetic sense, the very essence of purity, delicacy, wholesomeness, and honesty.
Maiden is just another media tart.
On the other hand she has not entered into demonic communion with the ABC or Fauxfacts, so maybe that she is not so much a maiden, but a spinster.
On a completely other subject, if youโre thinking about giving a child a board game as a gift (teenage boys are particularly difficult) – try โTicket to Rideโ. Itโs like Monopoly but with trains, railways and stations and sufficiently Byzantine in rule structure to satisfy the most discerning in such matters.
We played last night – I thought I was winning until one of the little horrors brought out the โextraโ rules that I had overlooked. Good stuff.
Taking us all for fools.
The project story aired on 15 February 2021.
Kimberley Kitching warned Linda Reynolds in the first week of February she was about to be attacked.
I expect he knows Gallagher is finished.
From a commenter at Michael Smith News.
David Putrino: Long Covid and Functional Neurological Disorder
“We are in our fourth year of work to understand #LongCovid and we now know things about it thanks to science. After being told again by a quasi-well meaning, if uninformed, clinician that LC is just functional neurological disorder (FND). Hereโs a thread on why LC IS NOT FND.โ
Samantha Maiden rode to Laborโs rescue again in February this year.
Lehrmann doesnโt come out well from the Brown story in Teh Weekend Paywallian.
Calli, if they like train games then the Empire Builder series and the 1830 series of games are excellent. Probably need to be age 10 and up with a decent feel for arithmetic. Great for learning geography!
m0nty=fa
Basically he had the opportunity on J6 to implement a fascist takeover. So many of his most fervent supporters wanted it, they worked so hard to make it possible,
It appears that most of those pushing โto implement a fascist takeoverโ on J6 were Feds. Unfortunately, they succeeded with their fascist takeover, and here we are.
More than than, everything she writes is designed to boost Labor and the Greens and to denigrate the LNP.
She is an activist using journalism to cheer for the parties she votes for.
Australian journalism is now full of such people — arrogant university educated loudmouth smartarse knowalls. And they wonder why the public’s trust of journalists is in the toilet.
A meme well suited to the Britnee fiasco ..!
https://ibb.co/hV4tHkf
Trump indictments unsealed. 37 counts of mishandling classified documents.
But but butโฆ Hillaryโs risotto recipes!!!!!
Someone mentioned Wilkinson’s ‘apology’. Hun:
but Kitchings text messages to Reynolds tell a different story
But but butโฆ Hillaryโs risotto recipes!!!!!
And her Blackberry you swooning moron.
Trump is also on tape as specifically saying he did not declassify these documents and that he knew they were national defence secrets. Confessing to the crimes, essentially.
What a colossal idiot.
Don’t worry Lisa, we all, and most especially Ms Price, understood what you meant, very well.
Being French is handicap enough.
Apparently.
No, he doesnโt Bear. Reading between the lines, Brownโs account is one of entitlement and shiftyness. Looks like she assumed โsexโ when he said โwhiskeyโ. In her position, so would I.
“That captured many of his failures. Unfortunately, we (as a society) are probably past the point weโre he could just say that is sub judice and walk away. Maybe not. The path to under the SloMo bus was well worn. Holgate and Australia Post was equally egregious.”
Don’t forget Bettina Arndt. What was done to her in February and March 2020 by Morrison and the Liberals paved the way for everything that followed after. I remember feeling utterly betrayed at how every single Liberal in the senate lined up to side with Labor and the Greens to censure Bettina Arndt. It still makes me angry.
I am yet to read the Oz piece about Fiona Brown but will do so later today. However the brief synopsis I get is that it confirms everything I have ever thought, said and written about Scott Morrison. The bottom line is that Morrison refused to defend his own, he refused to have the backs of his own, and he was always willing to throw his own (and others) to the hungry and baying progressive wolves, just ask Bettina Arndt, ask Christine Holgate, ask Craig Kelly, ask George Christensen, ask Andrew Laming, ask Alan Tudge, ask Christian Porter, a conga line of men and women whose political and professional lives were annihilated by the always inept and sly Morrison. Morrison, a deadbeat political Jack Spratt, was always eager to jump in and lead a melee against his own, always eager to slyly cheer his ideological enemies against his own, and then he’d stand back and lick his lips once the platter was clean of bodies, except the bones are now scattered everywhere, just ask Laming, Porter, Lehmann and others.
But of course his biggest betrayal was to ordinary Australians like you and me. Morrison, for almost three years, refused to utter one word of support to the Australian people when we had our rights not just violated, but completely trampled. He ain’t licking his lips now, he’s been exposed for what he is, a fool, and a buffoon.
But you know what angers me most? Higgins simply empowered other lunatic females to spuriously claim “rape”, and police today are now forced to give credence to ridiculous accusations and investigate them. And I have personal experience of this, because last year I had to spend over three hours at a police station giving testimony about how a woman’s accusation about rape over a decade ago simply did not happen. When the detective rang me to ask me to go to the police station, I asked if I could refuse and he said no. As for the “rape accusation”, in the last decade and more, not once did I ever hear from her the word “rape” until 2021, when clearly influenced, clearly motivated and clearly empowered by the likes of Higgins, this woman decided that she’d also, once upon a time, been raped.
Also colossal idiots: Cats who ran with the defence of Trump magically mind-zapping the documents to become declassified. Which never happened, as per Trumpโs own words, and never made any sort of sense at all.
Trumpโs only redeeming feature is his habit of showing up his slobbering lackeys as being brain-dead morons by undermining their flimsy arguments on tape.
Daily Telegraph:
“What a colossal idiot.”
Yes you are, good that you’re acknowledging your own incessant idiocy. Baby steps.
Poor pervert apologist, like a crying, screaming child, he’s desperate for some attention.
And another trait common to the two players – immaturity and promotion and clearance way above level of competence.
feelthebernsays:
June 10, 2023 at 5:35 am
Lee Fang (formally of the Intercept) now has proof on just how involved Pierre Omidyar was in the 2020 censorship regime.
Previously, he was known for being one of the big three contributors to the Zuck bucks slush fund with Zuckerberg (obviously) & Hoffman (LinkedIn founder for those unfamiliar).
All this was detailed in Mollie Hemingwayโs book โRiggedโ.
Taibbi recently went into detail showing how Omidyar started building this digital infrastructure back in 2014 to bridge between what censorship the state wanted & the social media platforms.
Fang now has proof the Omidyar funded & built the infrastructure for the Department of Homeland Security.
Yet another example of the fascist takeover which m0nty=fa mistakenly thinks was “averted” on J6. In reality, it occurred somewhat earlier, and continues now.
Bot m0nty=fa is too blinded by his ideology to comprehend that simple fact.
@ Mother Lode:
โIf you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry aboutโ?
That should be added to the list of the greatest lies in history.
To wit:
“Of course I’ll still respect you in the morning” , and:
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”
Especially in a penal colony inspired by Lavrenti Beria:
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
And “Doctor Ferris” from “Atlas Shrugged”:
โDid you really think we want those laws observed? We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted โ and you create a nation of law-breakers โ and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.โ
The “Rum Corps” LIVES!
What a colossal idiot.
Coming from someone who defends drag queens reading to kids, conservative teens run down in SUVs, coordinated attacks on women and Supreme Court Justices with whom he has differing views, supports abortion, the above statement from the fat lesbian is extraordinary to say the least. FMD
Whilst Ten has apologised to Price, the Amphibian is yet to personally apologise. I suspect the Amphibian is now holed up in her palatial waterside mansion at Mosman hiding. How long before she complains about being a “victim”?
Witnesses like Brown are key to understanding complex situations where lots happens after the event. No real dog in the fight and just trying to do their best.
With regards to those people wailing and lamenting the injustice of Brittnahโs emails being leaked to the public
It’s a worry! .. anyone hacking into my phone or emails would end up with a bad case of the yawns …….!
Sincerely?
How sincerely?
Read on, dear reader.
Private? So it’s OK to be racist in private?
As for context we read the entire grubby context and it doesn’t excuse you.
The context was that a conservative black woman has to be an Uncle Tom.
Yeah, nah.
You didn’t talk about that.
You were suggesting that conservative black women from Central Australia shouldn’t be pre-selected ahead of ladies like Allegra Spender.
johannasays:
June 10, 2023 at 7:59 am
Taibbi recently went into detail showing how Omidyar started building this digital infrastructure back in 2014 to bridge between what censorship the state wanted & the social media platforms.
Fang now has proof the Omidyar funded & built the infrastructure for the Department of Homeland Security.
Shades of when Soros linked organisations funded lawyers to go and work in DA offices โto help with the workload.โ In fact they were there to push leftist agendas like BLM and to persecute conservatives.
The attempts to integrate government with private actors is very disturbing indeed.
good comment johanna. The final sentence says it all Fascism is being implemented by so-called “progressives”. Which is appropriate, since fascism is a leftist movement.
It’s the golden age of board games, calli.
For those who are challenged for opponents there are even games designed with an analogue “bot” to pit your wits against. These saw an upswing in popularity during the lockdowns.
The thing that struck me was how often they pressed upon her this “Did anything happen? What ever you need. You have our full support.”
Firstly if you are going to say it then say it once. Once she had been asked if anything happened and reassured that she had support then she would know it. The effect of repeating it is to add something not in the original query/offer, but is tantamount to encouragement and a statement that she can rely upon them to take her side. “Do you make a report to the police? Do you want me to come with you?”
Secondly, how does this gel with the original command from Barons to not plant ideas in their heads or put words in their mouths. Compare this fussing about with the treatment Lehrmann received. Nothing about, for example, whether she did anything improper to him which his (vestigial) masculine upbringing might have insisted on reticence. Or even a faintly chivalric desire to spare Brittnah embarrassment – thinking if he said nothing then it would go no further and there would be no blow back on her.
Funny thing is I don’t even especially blame Brown or Reynolds or Barons. I expect it is simply the culture of the place and they cannot conceive that there might be anything not quite fair about how it works.
For a woman who usually speaks her mind, Lisa Wilkinsonโs apology to Jacinta Price is rather mealy-mouthed. I suppose she has no reason to fear being hounded out of public life by the media on account of her casual racism.
Channel 10 is still paying the bills .. methinx, after they went public, she was left with no choice ……!
I really really hope that over the course of the next few years everybody currently on the side of “we can get along with leftists, we just need to persuade them better” learns of the folly of this.
Logic works for us. It cannot work for them.
For 70 per cent of the population there is no such thing as persuasion. Just bullying and the Overton window.
coordinated attacks on women”
The pervert apologist supports physical attacks on women. He expressed here on these pages support for the violence in that Auckland Park in March against Kellie-Jay Keen. Quite frankly, he’s a disgrace. A creepy and very grubby black shirt fascist, no different to the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.
What does “opened a chair” mean?
First rule of political skulduggery: regular emails are not safe.
callisays:
June 10, 2023 at 8:25 am
On a completely other subject, if youโre thinking about giving a child a board game as a gift (teenage boys are particularly difficult) โ try โTicket to Rideโ.
Younger son and family have a set. Good fun, but a degree of ruthlessness is helpful.
โAlso colossal idiots: โฆโ – real chutzpah from someone who failed Econs101.
Sancho Panzersays:
June 10, 2023 at 8:54 am”
I think you’ve said it best.
โWhat a colossal idiot.โ
Projecting again.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that although Lehrmann might have been a flog, Morrisson is a dog, Higgins Pty Ltd is a sociopath, and Wilkinson, Sharaz, Gallagher et al are bog Trotskyists.
Unfortunately I con’t see the coldest psycho in Parliament, Penny Wong is exposed at all.
Wilkinson has issued a mealy-mouthed personal apology.
Also memo to herself ‘don’t tape ‘private’ conversations in relation to matters that are subject to a criminal investigation (and that you planned to profit from by using them as material for a TV program or whatever)’
Meme;
https://substack.com/redirect/b010bf08-23ce-44bf-80a5-41158b6263ce?j=eyJ1IjoiaG85YmoifQ.bMnuNm5GLk5MFSCvcs0G5r0y-jYhpNwjaZVrL0QBwGM
m0ntysays:
June 10, 2023 at 8:40 am
Trump indictments unsealed. 37 counts of mishandling classified documents.
Trump โstored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations at The Mar-a-Lago Club โ including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room,โ the indictment charges.
Creepy Joe stored his in the garage, accessible to his gardener.
Reminds of the Di-Fi Chi-Spy business, where the geriatric senator had a known Chinese spy as a chauffeur, who was in a prime position to listen to “interesting” conversations in the back seat.
When I were a young ‘un, a wee lad, my friends and I were going somewhere or other and they told me to get a single to Ryde station.
So I got to the ticket window and asked for the ticket from the attendant (for in those days we had people behind a little window who gave us our tickets – it was the style of the time).
My friends burst out laughing, and the attendant just looked straight at me as if I was the author of the joke. And I just looked back at him (confused), then at my friends (dawning awareness), then back at the attendant (apologetic).
For those of you not in Sydney, there is no Ryde station. (There is a North Ryde, opened in 2009 but.)
But, simply put, you cannot and could not ‘get a ticket to Ryde’.
“โThe conversation was private and not intended to appear as it has out of context and in the public arena.”
I’ve just listened to it again, there was nothing “out of context” when you listen to the Amphibian, Svengali Shazza, the Ten producer and Higgins all ridiculing, mocking and sneering Price. NOTHING.
I dunno Roger, what do you call a person who is caught on tape confessing to dozens of crimes worth 10-20 years in gaol each? Colossal idiot sounds about right to me.
Luckily for Trump, his arraignment next Tuesday is being handled by his pet corrupt judge Aileen Cannon. She will probably issue a fatwa on Hillary and appoint Trump as King of Moomba.
I steal from every movie ever made.
– Quentin Tarantino
What laws did he break, Fatboy?
Just imagine what’s said at the dinner parties.
These are all very nasty but insecure people seeking validation from each other.
What breed of dog can jump higher than buildings?
Any dog, because buildings canโt jump.
Bot m0nty=fa is too blinded by his ideology to comprehend that simple fact.
Sorry, typo, should be “But m0nty=fa …”, but (poorly programmed) bot works as well.
Canberra attracts the worst of society. This is what big government looks like irrespective of whether they badge themselves as left or right. Until a majority of Australians realise that big government solutions peddled don’t work then this will continue. I’m 54 and I don’t see any change on the horizon in my lifetime.
Fiona Brown neatly described the over-promoted adolescents who occupy the offices of ministers.
Thereโd be few here who would employ or seek the company of the likes of Lehrmann and Higgins.
Senate Dems Warn Twitter to Bring Back Censorship or Face Gov Action
I donโt think kd will escape unscathed. I suspect she is too high up the Liars totem to end up as a head on a stick.
Dont feed the troll..
A Visual Example of Joe Biden Caught in the Act of a 18 U.S. Code ยง 793 Violation According to Special Counsel Jack Smith
Some off-topic amusement – a video from 16 years ago, now doing the rounds again, of Craig Foster in an interview trying to tell Ange Postecoglou that Ange Postecoglou is a shit coach who should resign.
If you watch the interview as it proceeds you’ll see all the usual leftist flog tactics of personal attacks, diversion, speaking over the target and so on.
Mr Postecoglou’s response is from the Cassie School of How to Respond to Leftist Flogs.
DC_Draino
@DC_Draino
These photos were included in the DOJ indictment to allege President Trump was โcarelessโ with his documents
First of all, where are the pictures of Joe Bidenโs garage and Hillaryโs home email server?
But more importantly, Mar a Lago is a locked down fortress
They have armed Secret Service at the entrance checking IDs, only club members and their guests are allowed, there are security cameras everywhere, and agents are stationed at almost every corner where people are allowed to go (which is less than 10% of the entire property)
If President Trump is in the area, the Secret Service presence increases drastically
No pictures are allowed anywhere on the premises by guests and that policy is strictly enforced
You canโt use the wrong bathroom without a Secret Service agent stopping you
These photographs clearly show either a) documents in transit to secure locations or b) their place in a secure closet
You canโt find a gum wrapper out of place in Mar a Lago, never mind boxes of documents strewn about
These photos are a blatant smear by the DOJ
REVEALED: FBI agent in charge of Trump Mar-a-Lago raid said he had ‘strong concerns’ about operation, says bureau didn’t get consent for agents to search and it was ‘very unusual’ for DC to lead Florida probe in testimony to Republicans
On the RUOK stuffโฆmy take is that Brown smelled a rat (like the corpse in the ceiling above my head right now).
She sounds experienced enough around immature numpties to suss it out, but couldnโt quite pin it down. The โrapeโ was always a possibility, but the stronger one was a bit of sly rumpy pumpy in the aphrodisiac-charged halls of power. Both worthy of dismissal.
A lie turned into a nightmare for everyone except the liarโฆuntil now. It often happens that way.
Apparently, you had one job.
yates exhibits at the Canberra enquiry
Special Counsel Prosecutor Karen Gilbertโs History of โCorruptionโ Clouds Trump Indictment
m0ntysays:
June 10, 2023 at 9:09 am
I dunno Roger, what do you call a person who is caught on tape confessing to dozens of crimes worth 10-20 years in gaol each? Colossal idiot sounds about right to me.
Luckily for Trump, his arraignment next Tuesday is being handled by his pet corrupt judge Aileen Cannon. She will probably issue a fatwa on Hillary and appoint Trump as King of Moomba.
Meeeeeooowwww!. Saucer of milk for the Feral Pussy.
Tim Young
@TimRunsHisMouth
For the first time in American history, a sitting President oversaw the indictment of his top political opponent…
So of course Biden runs from questions about it.
And his team immediately pushes the media out of the room.
Welcome to the banana republic.
Vicki Campion:
Catturd โข
@catturd2
We have a corrupt AG and DOJ labeling Christians and soccer moms as domestic terrorist and arresting the Republican front runner – and the worthless Republican Party is doing nothing but rage tweeting.
What TF more does lawless traitor Merrick Garland have to do before you get off your sorry asses and impeach him?
Yes Calli, ‘Ticket to Ride’ is an excellent game.
Monopoly gives a feeling of despair very early as you see others’ advantages compounding because that blighter had two good turns at the start; that felt bitterness probably created three generations of whining socialists.
But our kids have very strategic gaming skills, and introduce us to lots of great games.
We enjoyed playing a lot of Carcassonne. Pit your druid circles against my monasteries while building cities and see who wins…
Terraforming Mars – sophisticated, lots of changes to the starting opportunities so its never the same game twice. Schedule four to six hours, provide supplies.
Calico sucks (for blokes). Patchwork patterns, sleeping cats… ptahh. But Azul is awesome; draw coloured tiles, complete patterns to score.
Medieval England Was Too White
The woke war on the past reaches historic proportions.
Unless you were catching a bus. Then you could have some fun.
Allegedly.
Yes, Lehrmann doesn’t come out of Brown’s account very well either.
Somewhat entitled and self-absorbed.
The whole “important notes of secret business learned over drinks” thing reeked of bullshit. I am not suggesting he wasn’t writing up some notes of some sort, but the main objective was to project an image of “working 24/7”.
Very similar to Monique Ryan and her former helper Sally Rugg-Muncher.
“We were working soooo hard!”
Doing what?
I don’t agree that rape is always a possibility when two people enter a building voluntarily after hours, unless you believe that whenever a man and a woman are alone together, rape is a possibility.
Maybe it is.
Brown was being extremely cautious and may well have planted a seed, that not only could Higgins be in no trouble at all for her security breach but might even turn it to her advantage by dropping that little hint then getting preferential treatment as a brave yet silent victim of ‘something’.
The kids have brought up AzulโฆIโll give it a go.
Calico sounds very โmeโโฆexcept for the cats.
One thing that leapt out from Fiona Brown’s account is that Morrison misled Parliament when he said that he had spoken to her about the allegations. She says he hadn’t, and bailed her up afterwards to ‘remind’ her that he had.
Zero ethics from the alleged God botherer.
I can’t imagine Tony Abbott doing that.
Muslims seem to be losing their protected species status.
Maryland Democrat calls Muslim families white supremacists
and
Young muslim kids STOMP the pride flag as their mothers cheer them on
and
BREAKING: California Bill Would Charge Any Parent Who Doesnโt Affirm Transgenderism With โChild Abuseโ
Calli,
Calli, angels come in all shapes and sizes.
Wilkinson reckons her bitch up was taken out of context and she was only trying to expose the anti-chick culture in the LNP because she cares.
Itโs nice to start the day with a good genuine laugh.
Rosie, it has to be when youโre an employer. Unlikely, but if a situation appears highly charged, you have to entertain the thought.
As for planting a seed that would grow into a full-blown accusation, I doubt that needed to be planted at all. Itโs always there and has been since antiquity.
You suspect that wasnโt the first time. What a cesspit.
JC, the unsealed indictments number 37.
There is an expression “Those who cannot beat the ass beat the saddle”.
It was quoted in I, Claudius as a proverb, but having had a quick Goolag search it is apparently claimed as a proverb by the Albanians and Greeks as well.
In case it is not obvious, those who cannot (or dare not) hit out at the something take it out instead on something nearer even though it is blameless and the violence pointless.
So, behind the high walls of her home in Mosman (j’ismists are very conscious of their privacy in the same way a burglar knows to lock up everything they own very carefully), at the side of her pool where the creeping light of the morning sun is just starting to encroach upon her sun lounge, Lisa will be seated, leaning forward, holding a tall but half empty glass in both her hands. A vodka and orange, although the orange colour is quite dilute. Her eyes watery, partly from self-pity and partly the fumes arising from her glass. She will be seething at Jacinta’s presumption, and leering with malicious intent at the black house maid.
Mrs Beetrooter.
We did?
Who is we?
You and Beetrooter?
Call me old fashioned, but I was waiting for a trial.
Cut it out, Vikki. You might believe it, I donโt.
She wanted to keep her job. The End.
At any time in the process, she could have told the truth. She could have said โNoโ. She didnโt, but instead enjoyed the spotlight as โthe face of the movementโ.
And lets not forget his wife.
Feel sorry for the children.
The looming federal election soon consumed Brownโs attention. Higgins was asked if she wanted to work from the Gold Coast or go to Perth for the election campaign where Reynolds, a WA senator, would spend her time.
So, why didn’t Higgins accept the offer to work from the Gold Coast [where she lives] rather than go to Perth [where she knows nobody] for the Election campaign?
Was it because Brown told her if she did that she wouldn’t have a job to return to?
Heavens no! shrieks Brown, that would be corruption.
Yeah, she’d been an Apparatchik for 35 years, now she says she was a babe in the woods all that time.
Bottom line:
It’s a tough business, whatever brilliant work she’d done previously [if any] didn’t matter after the bad call she made in the Higgins episode.
Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.
Excellent (verging on brilliant) Saturday column by Vikki Campion.
Thanks for liberating it from the Daily Tele paywall, Black Ball.
From todayโs edition of the Medium mass email.
The World Would Have Been Fine if My Mother Had an Abortion
I love my life, and my mother still deserved a choice
Not the strongest argument for abortion.
There were 2 people there that night. They didnโt get there by accident.
m0nty=fa
Is that all they’ve got? Compare with Shrillary deleting classified government documents from her “bathroom” server.
And don’t crap on about “risotto recipes”, that dog won’t hunt.
Yeah…nah.
(Adopting the contemporary Australian vernacular for the sake of politeness.)
At every step on the way she had moral agency.
Fiona Brown will never get an apology because she is not from the Labor or greens. She is the one who should be compensated, $20 million at least, by the government and The Project people.
They will all survive because they have the numbers and the media.
Oh but Medium gets yet dumber.
Yes itโs true your honour, this man has no balls.
Roger,
Something Malcolm Turnbull understood, hence his early adoption of Telegram (which turned out not to be so safe. Ask Glenn Greenwald and various Brazilian officials.)
My $0.02 on the Fiona Brown article upthread.
We are expected to believe that a senior political hack like Brown, with years of experience in politics, working in the cesspit of the Nation for decades literally “fell out of the sky” over the excrement thrown around by Haggins in February 2021.
Pull the other one, sweetie!
Having previously worked in a woke cesspit for years, I have had ample experience of the Chinese-whisper-like policies and procedures around complaints.
The @rse-covering-above-all imperative is the first thing one thinks of when dealing with an innocent ingenue laying a potential mine at your feet ie. always, always assume it’s a mine!
At the first whiff of H2S gas ie. within seconds of the first meeting, ask to have a witness present, take contemporaneous notes and record the conversation. Never take the ingenue’s version of events as anything other than florid BS.
Nod sympathetically, refer Sweetest Snow-white to support services, politely end the meeting and then email your superior to begin the “spread-the-blame-around” process that will enmesh people who will have more to lose if/when the proverbial hits the blades.
Brown would have known all that.. with bells on… to the power of infinity.
She now counts on sympathy by playing the victim.
But I didn’t hear the violins.
I read of a middle-aged woman, with a f@ucked home life sacrificed to Satan’s rectum in Canberra, who realised she got played by her sistaz, including a much younger version of her.
If she gets away with this, it’s just more celebration and support of abject failure, just one of the many reasons that the West is fucked.
Dover, I have corrected my post, please discard the moderated one.
I suspect the Amphibian is now holed up in her palatial waterside mansion at Mosman hiding.
If Lisa has any sense she’ll do what any “houso” would do .. have a good laff whilst reading her bank statement and have another martini …..
She may never work in “show business” again but she ain’t gonna go hungry, either ..!
The wild card here is the wide disparity between batches. And the different standards of handling. Ironically, the more degraded it is, the less dangerous.
This is awesome. LOL.
https://twitter.com/_N9_9/status/1667284058374545409
they all do, apparently.
on the semantics of ‘morality’, last week some small-talk here highlighted the gulf between the rationalists and the absolutists
MotherLode’s parody “Her eyes watery, partly from self-pity and partly the fumes arising from her glass” is funny but doesn’t ring true.
more likely that the fumes will be whispering something like … nah, it’s time to speak power to truth
every good Arts Student these days gets to consume Freud’s Totem and Taboo early in their course
and Tucker Carlson touched on taboo yesterday
watch while suddenly nothing happens in the greater Lehrmann imbroglio
it isn’t about good, or right, or wrong … its about power
eat the bugs
If Brownโs account of her conversation with Morrison is true, then his โwe have spokenโ was simply a box ticking exercise so that he would not be seen to be misleading Parliament. In other words, the hallway conversation was the beginning and end of the consultation/discussion. As someone mentioned up thread, a Pharisee performing the minimal requirements to fulfil the task.
It makes him look conniving and cowardly. We deserve better from our parliamentarians. I have zero doubt that the same episode is repeated dozens of times on the other side of the political divide as well, possibly with even greater enticements to remain schtumm and toe the line as required.
He has no one to blame for his waning star but himself.
After the Godwin Gretch episode he would have been well advised to give it away entirely. Alas, this did not happen.
But we’re not going to get it.
Thanks for posting that.
Wow. Just WOW.
If everything claimed in that article is factual …
Credit where credit is due, though … (I cannot believe I’m about to write this; I feel dirty) … congratulations to the Janet A. and Stephen Rice, and to their paper for publishing it. It’s as though a schism in time has opened and we’ve slipped back 30 years or so.
What an extraordinary story as a whole.
snap. Tom
The media is breaking, Crossie.
It’s just too juicy a story for them.
That being said, they may yet survive, but they’ll be forever tarnished by their perfidy.
Nope, as I understand it he claimed to have discussed the allegations with her, not just that he ‘spoke’ to her. If she is to be believed, that was a lie and he misled Parliament.
On another note, Greta Thunberg has finally graduated from high school, aged 20:
Graduating aged 20? Bit of a slow learner.
Postecoglou’s early managerial record was nothing to write home about, but then neither was Sir Scottish Drunk‘s.
Postecoglou has certainly had the last laugh, especially given his new gig at Tottenham. Foster will always be a stupid sanctimonious mediocrity.
Erm…what do you mean, “look”?
Scott Morrison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TuEWtXBT_0
Just my $0.02 on the Fiona Brown article upthread.
We are earnestly expected to believe that a senior political hack like Brown, with years of experience in politics, working in the national cesspit for decades, literally โfell out of the skyโ over the excrement thrown around by Haggins in February 2021.
Pull the other one, sweetie!
Having previously worked in a woke cesspit for years, I have had ample experience of the Chinese-whisper-like policies and procedures around complaints.
The @rse-covering-above-all imperative is the first thing one thinks of when dealing with an innocent ingenue laying a potential mine at your feet.
Always, always assume itโs a mine!
At the first whiff of H2S gas ie. within seconds of the start of the first meeting, ask to have a witness present, take contemporaneous notes and record the conversation.
Never take the ingenueโs version of events as anything other than florid, liquid BS.
Nod sympathetically, refer Sweetest Snow-white to support services, politely end the meeting and then email your superior, to begin the โspread-the-blame-aroundโ process that will enmesh people who will have more to lose if/when the proverbial hits the blades.
Brown would have known all that.. with bells onโฆ to the power of infinity.
It is simply the only way to survive in a bureaucratic, woke environment.
Fiona now counts on public sympathy by playing the victim.
But I didnโt hear the violins.
I heard a middle-aged woman, with no career and a home life sacrificed to purveyors of Satanโs rectum in Canberra, who realised, too late, that she got played by her sistaz, including a much younger version of her.
She simply failed at her job
If she succeeds in this deflection, itโs yet more evidence that abject failure is OK.
Just more evidence, if any was needed, that the West is f@cked.
She’s a Downie.
Her and Beetrooter were all-in with the story from the get go.
Reaching out.
Reaching around.
Touching me.
Touching you.
.
Oops sorry.
Went a bit Neil Diamond there.
** chuckles
The leftards might be more careful about importing muslims in the near future. I have no beef with muslims.
No, that is not all that Plod have on Trump. Election fraud, business fraud and seditious conspiracy indictments are all coming.
Meanwhile, Hillary is having fun selling But Her Emails merch.
One more article before heading out, Phillip Benwell in the Hun.
Passing biology, physics and chemistry would’ve been especially tough for her.
Also history, economics and anything technical.
Something Malcolm Turnbull understood, hence his early adoption of Telegram
Turnbull’s original app of choice was Wikr.
Similar to what Signal is now.
Monty Beria is permanently priapic today.
Doesn’t seem to be interested in Biden, Pence or Hillary though.
Ok no one breathing would be interested in Hillary. Eww.
This Hoggins imbroglio seems to become more tawdry by the day.
Two drunken appallingly ignorant utterly useless young imbeciles incorrectly admitted to a federal government minister’s office at 2:30am on a Saturday and people are still obsessing about it years later.
You would have thought that a staggeringly stupid braindead lamestream media mediocrity such as the amphibian could not have made itself look even more ridiculous than it already was.
Yet here we are. Casual racism and hypocrisy, leavened with speech patterns that defy description.
Our ruling caste is beyond preposterous, entirely fitting given we are now existing in the most stupid age in human history.
And on that note, it’s time to adjourn for some exercise and then some gardening.
Monty mustn’t be getting any from her mrs. To come and spray diarrhoea the way she does is her sexual gratification. Change my mind.
Enjoy the decline, rabz.
Brown says Lehrmann was leaving the Office in a few days anyway?
So, did he officially get the sack or not?
And what about the new job?
Did he take it up or not?
And the first “Security Breach” was over a Document, not over unauthorised entry as we’d been told.
Here’s what looks like really happened:
Reynolds and Brown got an early heads up about events.
That’s just common sense, do you think Security woulda kept their jobs if they’d waited 2 days to tell the Minister that a naked woman was found in her office.
Then there’s the Industrial Steamcleaning that happened 10 minutes after Higgins exited.
Do a thorough search for condoms, the cleaner was told.
Bottom Line:
Reynolds tried to manage Higgins out the door, through Brown, but they found out the hard way that Higgins was made of sterner stuff and put she her Media Adviser experience to good use.
How do you know? What election fraud?
Indicting him for the January 6 nonsense is a complete and utter joke.
Bwah ha ha ha.
Yes.
The tapes sounded like they were reading verbatim from the Department of Administrative Administration’s Gender and Equity handbook.
And how is that working for her now?
Thanks Gilas. Thereโs always that great big pachyderm in the corner called โIfโ.
What intrigues me is that she kept quiet for so long. Orโฆwas no one prepared to print the story until now?
On your depiction of Canberra – a family member is working for one of those hideous secret squirrel agencies down there and has to attend meetings every so often. Canโt wait to get out of the place. Offered a huge promotion with certain โclearance requirementsโ but will not touch it with a barge pole.
Too much integrity Iโm glad to say.
So Powerline refers us to a British tankie who says that high-morale Ukrainians have eight weeks training in Combined Arms Operations, and will go through no-hope Russian conscripts in a massive roll-up.
Reminds me of John Masters on the subject of young officers just back from Machine Gun School. evangelism.
But I am not thinking of it in terms of the Uke-Russia war, but local politics. Imagine if there were a system of combined operations capable of getting disgruntled conservatives, ordinary religious types, a gaggle of reformed libertarians and rational middle-of-the-roaders to act for the same purpose, and correctly liberate the chancers and self-serving arses to live their best lives toward the end of managing the future of the country well.
Just imagine.
No thanks. Once you take the classical republicanism pill you can never go back to “normal” representative democracy-style politics. It’s retarded.
There is an AG in Georgia working on it. Also one in NY working on business fraud. Plus the Feds working on further J6 charges, off the back of a very long string of convictions of militant Magadonians.
Pay attention, Dot.
“We’re working on it”
Bragg’s case was a jacking folk. I want substance monty, not rhetoric.
Regarding the Beetrooter Dynasty.
I posted here the other day how he gave Plibbers a free pass on Sunrise on Monday but was beating the drum about the $3 meg payout on Sky on Wednesday.
Why the turnaround?
Well, his meeja adviser (Mrs Beetrooter 2.0) tells him which way she percieves each audience leans, and he then leans in unison with them.
No doubt Beetrooter will be leading the charge against Gallagher and Co in QT at the first opportunity.
Will that increase my respect for him?
Nup.
He will only be doing it because of perceived political advantage for Beetrooter.
He was prepared to “reach out” to Britnah and throw Lehrmann under a bus because he thought it would look good for him.
Equally he will pile on The Liars, not because it is right or wrong, but because he thinks it will boost The Great Beetrooter.
As someone once said …
FCK OFF BANANABY!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12179793/Four-children-missing-six-weeks-plane-crashed-Amazon-jungle-ALIVE.html
Thank God. They breed them tough in Columbia.
Munty is the sole source of truth. Just ask him.
Sir Scottish Drunk’s greatest coaching miracle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hedUBy_w8g
Trying to take out Viera like a long-firm hitman in a dodgy Ford Sierra, not so good.
And how is that working for her now?
Pretty well, I’d say.
She didn’t say anything while Wilkinson and Sharaz were droning on about Jacinta Price, which shows common sense and good taste, and she’s made no comment on Brown’s wailing either.