“I did not recognise her at the time but subsequently learned she was Judge Aitken.”The judge continued, “How can you be listening to this?”, Costello said. Howard claimed to the panel that when she asked Reed to leave the NZ First function: “He refused to do so and became hostile”. Michael Reed, KC, seen in a video played to a Judicial Conduct Panel investigating Judge Ema Aitken. I had Cabinet ministers [in the room] and a man who was acting unstable,” Howard claimed. Jones then asked whether Howard wanted to “increase focus” on the judge so NZ First could “leverage” the incident.

Source: New Zealand Herald February 12, 2026 01:53 UTC