<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann's request for financial assistance has been knocked back after his home was raided by the national anti-corruption watchdog.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Officials from the National Anti-Corruption Commission searched the 30-year-old's home in June 2024 over allegations he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines five years earlier.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lehrmann denies the allegation and has sought assistance from the federal government to cover his legal costs of the raid.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/bella-culley-update-pregnant-british-teen-arrested-for-drug-smuggling-in-georgia-released-after-guilty-verdict/ffa2048a-de7c-4169-959b-2f9e0964601c" target="_blank"><strong><span>How pregnant teen went from Thai holiday to jail in Georgia</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This request was rejected by federal Special Minister of State Don Farrell on October 22, the law student revealed in a brief Federal Court hearing today.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After failing to hear back about funding for more than a year, Lehrmann has sued Farrell and NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton seeking court orders forcing an outcome.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With a rejection now issued by the minister, the 30-year-old told the Federal Court in Hobart he would amend his case to call for a judicial review of the decision.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/lehrmanns-cost-woes-in-anticorruption-submarine-probe-court-sydney-news/cec270ff-9589-4c73-8ac0-4b80858e8963" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While mediation between the parties was called off due to the change in circumstances, Farrell and Brereton's barrister Bora Kaplan SC said his clients would be willing to sit down with Lehrmann in the future.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The former staffer revealed he had also made a request for funding to federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While a hearing has been set down for February, Lehrmann indicated he was prepared to call for an urgent hearing sooner, fearing Christmas raids from the anti-corruption watchdog.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The watchdog could retaliate after being targeted by Lehrmann's lawsuit and had not given an undertaking it would make no further moves against him before February, he told Justice Brigitte Markovic.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The orders I seek don't prejudice a new NACC investigation if they think I stole US submarine secrets now," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In October, Lehrmann told the court investigators seized two personal diaries during the raid on his home.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He claims the probe was spurred by "frivolous, James Bond-like allegations".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lehrmann is accused of gathering the confidential information in March 2019, days after he allegedly raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He has denied the sexual assault claims, which remain untested in a criminal court after a 2022 trial in the ACT was abandoned due to juror misconduct.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found in 2024 the allegations he raped Higgins were proven on the balance of probabilities and dismissed his defamation suit against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lehrmann has appealed against the defamation loss.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>Support is available from the</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>at</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au/" title="https://www.1800respect.org.au/"><strong><span>1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)</span></strong></a><strong><span>.</span></strong></div></div>