Bruce Lehrmann trial live stream: Read Channel Seven CEO’s angry email blast to staff over prostitute, cocaine and pay rise claims as TV insider Taylor Auerbach testifies for a second day

Channel Seven’s CEO fired off an email to staff, slamming former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach’s claims the network covered Bruce Lehrmann’s costs for drugs and prostitutes.

The internal email, obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia, from James Warburton (pictured below) following Mr Auerbach’s evidence in the Federal Court on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Auerbach had told the court that his bosses at Spotlight had asked him to ‘babysit’ Mr Lehrmann in late 2022, in a bid to entice the former Liberal staffer into signing an exclusive interview deal with the program.

He claimed the evening descended into debauchery with cocaine and sex workers at the Meriton hotel, all on Channel Seven’s dime.

Mr Auerbach further claimed he was offered a promotion and a pay rise after using a Channel Seven credit card to buy $10,000 worth of Thai massages for himself and Bruce Lehrmann.

The network denied the claims in a formal statement to media outlets on Thursday afternoon, but it also appears to have gone into crisis mode with an email to assure staff members that Mr Auerbach’s claims were false.

Mr Warburton wrote: ‘Hello team, Seven is appalled by the allegations made in court in recent days.

‘We do not condone the behaviours described in these allegations. They do not reflect the culture of Seven.”For the record, Seven did not offer a promotion or pay rise to Taylor Auerbach in November 2022, nor did it do so at any time after that.’

‘Seven did not reimburse Bruce Lehrmann for expenditure that has allegedly been used to pay for illegal drugs or prostitutes, and has never done so.’

Mr Warburton went on to explain the network had complied with all obligations to produce relevant documentation to the court and, contrary to Mr Auerbach’s evidence, never asked anyone to delete or destroy documents.

‘As we said earlier this week, Seven did not condone or authorise the alleged payments to Mr Lehrmann in the affidavits recently made public,’ the letter read.

‘The person involved admitted to the misuse of a Seven corporate card and all unauthorised expenses were immediately reimbursed.

‘Seven has acted appropriately at all times.’

In court on Thursday, Mr Auerbach said he had messaged his former boss Steve Jackson while sitting in front of a plate of cocaine with Mr Lehrmann.

‘I was worried this was happening again,’ he said.

‘[Mr Lehrmann] was on the warpath again and it was no anomaly and … the words I used was, “this is f***ed”.’

He also told the court that the morning after the Thai massages was ‘the worst day of my life’.

Mr Auerbach had tendered his resignation to Mr Jackson and the Spotlight executive producer, Mark Llewellyn.

In that letter, Mr Auerbach apologised for his conduct and for spending ‘thousands’ of corporate dollars.

‘In a drunken daze, I put thousands of dollars on a corporate credit card for something that had nothing to do with work,’ he had written.

Under cross-examination by Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson SC, Mr Auerbach said he was then given a pay rise and a promotion.

The Federal Court will resume at 10.45am on Friday.