The court heard that nine journalists, Nick McKenzie, were told that Ben Roberts-Smith's ex-wife planned to face veterans before his slander trial, and that the allegedly informant told him that "always good on the front feet."

On Tuesday, the Australian Federal Court heard that a friend of Emma Roberts told Mackenzie that Emma is planning to notify and write to the CDPP for so-called "violations" and "restrictions on any further publications being produced".

The signal message sent by Danielle Scott in November 2020 was read by Arthur Moses SC, representing Roberts-Smith. She also reportedly told Mackenzie: "You owe me 2 beer."

Roberts-Smith believes his unsuccessful libel case against McKenzie and nine newspapers should be retold because McKenzie’s alleged “miscarriage” caused “justice.”

Allegedly, Roberts-Smith's affidavit filed in federal court last month, McKenzie allegedly told witnesses in a secret audio record that Emma Roberts and her friend "actively briefed us on his legal strategies to improve your legal strategies...we've already looked forward to most of them.

Roberts-Smith, who did not appear in court on Tuesday, claimed McKenzie “performs intentional misconduct in litigation through improper, illegally obtaining and retaining legal strategies for trials and privileged trials.

Roberts-Smith filed a libel lawsuit against McKenzie, a process that took place for a year in the Federal Court in Sydney and published a series of stories between June and August 2018, accusing veterans of murder and war crimes.

Roberts-Smith lost the case. Judge Anthony Besanko ruled in June 2023 that Roberts-Smith murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian Army in Afghanistan on a balance of probability.

Moses argued Tuesday that nine lawyers, Dean Levitan and Peter Bartlett, should be asked to provide verbal evidence at hearings this Thursday and Friday.

He argued that his team had the right to test Mackenzie's claims, he did not know that the information provided to him was privileged and that "determined their version of the activity."

"They may have told him you can't do that, we don't know," Moses said in court Tuesday.

“We don’t have a version of their event.”

Levitan's lawyers argued Tuesday that the "real purpose" of calling for attorneys to provide evidence is for applicants to collect more "or some abuse of evidence" which would allow for "larger appeals."

They said it was a "fishing expedition" designed not to obtain evidence, but to discover the action.

Tom Blackburn KC, who acts on behalf of Bartlett, said “attacking his clients” is an exercise.

Blackburn told the court that the bid for retrial was “unless they demonstrated that the materials were used in some way”.

“If they can’t prove use and one advanced use, then… (it) simply won’t succeed.”

Federal Court Judge Nye Perram retained his decision on the intermediate application.