Mike's Minute: This court case is outrageously political

My summation of what we have heard so far in the Judge Aitken case. The “Did I yell at and interrupt and disrupt Winston?" case. 

Aitken was on the stand, so to speak, yesterday, remembering none of this is criminal. 

In fact, I would describe it as outrageously political. 

Judge Aitken shouldn’t be here. No one should. It’s a storm in a judicial teacup. 

Should she have had a pop at Winston at the Northern Club? Of course not. 

The incident, much disputed in terms of angst, animosity, and volume, shows the judge in a poor light. 

It was none of her business and you don't go around running commentary on other people's evenings. 

Then again you don’t go dobbing interlopers in to the Attorney General, which is what has happened, and next thing you know you have a legal circus where a person's career is potentially about to be blown up. 

Also disturbing for me as the casual observer, is the Chief District Court Judge's role in the apology by Judge Aitken. He involved two media advisors and amended Aitken's wording so it wouldn’t offend New Zealand First. 

At all times the Chief Judge seemed to be obsessed with not offending political parties. His overt weakness worries me, not to mention Judge Aitken's inability to have her voice heard. She's not 13-years-old, she's a judge. 

My sense of where we are at is we will never get to know the full story because the versions vary. Therefore, the panel doing the deciding won't come to a definitive conclusion, therefore whatever they put before Paul Goldsmith will go nowhere. 

So maybe what we are seeing currently is the actual punishment. In other words, a judge, her reputation, her drinking habits, her words all being dissected, is the punishment. It is the humiliation. 

Overall the insight in the legal fraternity, not forgetting the good judge's celebratory doctor partner and the KC on video, does not come off reputationally well. 

If you wanted to think of them broadly as a bunch of champagne-swilling, self-serving snobs, they haven't done a lot to dissuade us. 

But then New Zealand First look like a petty, point score-y, loser group of narks, who don’t mind wrecking peoples lives. 

The hearing continues. 

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