Senator Linda Reynolds has followed through with a defamation threat against Brittany Higgins in their ongoing public feud.

The Liberal MP lodged a writ in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday, suing Ms Higgins over social media posts that accused Senator Reynolds of harassment.

Senator Reynolds alleges Ms Higgins posted an Instagram story on July 4 and a Twitter post on July 20 that both defamed her.

Senator Reynolds also claims the posts breached a deed of settlement between the pair from March 2021, which contained a non-disparagement clause.

Senator Reynolds will seek aggravated damages plus interest and costs, and an injunction restraining Ms Higgins from publishing further allegedly defamatory material.

Lawyers for the Senator contacted Ms Higgins in early July advising her to remove the allegedly defamatory posts or potentially face legal action.

Ms Higgins tweeted in response that she was considering her legal options.

It followed Ms Higgins lashing out at Senator Reynolds on social media last month, accusing her former boss of “continuing to harass me”.

“This has got to stop,” Ms Higgins said.

She claimed in her Instagram story post that Senator Reynolds would not leave her alone “through the media and the Parliament”, and referenced news headlines at the time that stated Senator Reynolds was pursuing further action.

The latest development was revealed on Wednesday, hours after details of a leaked report by Walter Sofronoff into the handling of the Lehrmann trial were published by The Australian newspaper.

The 600-page findings, which will not be publicly released until late August, reportedly contained bombshell allegations against chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold.

Mr Lehrmann reacted to the news on his Instagram account on Thursday, saying the report revealed what he and his legal team had suspected.

“This is overwhelming and alarming reading. It is a credit to Mr Sofronoff and his team for pulling back the covers and exposing what really is a dark chapter for the ACT justice system,” he wrote.

Federal police have demanded the report’s urgent release.

Alex Caruana, from the Australian Federal Police Association, said media reports of the investigation’s findings vindicated his officers.

“While we welcomed the inquiry, we knew it would be the only way to reveal the truth,” he said on Thursday.

“We were always confident that the investigating officers had conducted a thorough and professional investigation from day one.”

The police union said the report should immediately be released in full, describing it as a welfare issue for everyone involved in the inquiry.

Mr Caruana said the aCT government should also consider investigating who leaked the report. He said ACT Policing officers had admitted to their errors.

“Sexual assault investigations are among the hardest to conduct, even more so when you have a high level of national scrutiny,” he said.

The independent inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Walter Sofronoff has delivered its report to the ACT government.

Despite the media leaks, the territory government has refused to release the report, saying it was being considered by cabinet.

“The report and the ACT government response will be released publicly once this process has been finalised and it will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly at the end of the month,” a spokesperson said.

Mr Sofronoff declined to comment.

While investigating officers have been absolved of blame, the report is expected to include negative findings Mr Drumgold.

Mr Drumgold is on leave until the end of August while the government considers the findings.

Mr Lehrmann was accused of raping Ms Higgins at Parliament House after a night out in 2019. He denies the allegation.

Prosecutors dropped the charge against Mr Lehrmann over fears about the effect of a second trial on Ms Higgins’ mental health after the first trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has also urged the ACT government to immediately release the report.

– AAP