Other 48 bookstores in book row shutteredded. The store was then passed on to my late father, fred bass, who grew the store to a scale and popularity he never thought was possible. Now im the owner, and some critics said as a woman its hard, going to be hard to run the store, and id get wiped out by, in this digital age. Right, ha. [laughter] so i want to thank you and the book Loving Community in this audience for helping us not only survive are, but thrive through the agings. [applause] so its impossible to realize tonights book, watergate girl, without drawing parallels to todays headlines. At the crossroads of the watergate scandal and womans d the Womans Movement stood a lawyer barely 30 years old and the only woman on the team that prosecuted the highest ranking white house official. Amidst a failing marriage, having her house robbed and her privacy invaded, he fought to receive the. Respect afforded her male counterpartses. Tonights author, Jill Winebanks, is an msnbc analyst who began her career as an organized crime prosecutor at the u. S. Department of justice. Shes also served as general counsel of the u. S. Army, solicitor general and Deputy Attorney general of the state of illinois. Chief operating officer of the more than bar associate, the first Bar Association is, the first woman to hold these positions in each role. Until conversation with jill tonight is maya wiley, a nationally renowned expert on Racial Justice and equity. She has litigated, lobbied the u. S. Congress and developed programs to transform Structural Racism in the u. S. And south africa. Maya is currently a University Professor at the nearby new school university. She is also a legal analyst for nbc news and msnbc. I just also want to thank brodie from sterling lord for being in the audience, wonderful agent, and i want to give a big shoutout to cspan for being here tonight. [applause] so without further ado, please join me in welcoming two pioneering women, Jill Winebanks and maya wiley and the watergate girl to the strand. [applause] thank you and good evening. Thank you for being here. I am so excited to be able to be in this conversation with jill who is my sisterinlaw. [applause] yes, she is. Okay, thats not literal, just in case anyone got excited. [laughter] but in spirit. And it was such a pleasure to read this book. And i hope you all have purchased it, and if you havent, you will. And i just wanted to start, jill, really with the why you wrote it. And i dont mean the why in the sense of its a really important sense of stories, but why did you write it it. Jill let me know just recently she actually started it in 2008 in case you thought she started it because of donald trump. I did. I started in 2008 when i theoretically retired. Obviously, i have failed at retumor [laughter] but i flew from retiger on friday to italy to be with very good friends who, unfortunately, are flying back and landing tomorrow, so they arent here tonight. And they said weve always said you should write a book. Whats your excuse now . You always said you were too busy. And i had run out of excuses. And so i started writing a book. And then i sort of dropped it. I got an agent who had a different vision for the book than i had, and i rewrote it to his specifications, and then i was lucky enough wheres flip in flip, in the muddle of the room there, agreed with me that the focus was wrong, and i refocused it what was the focus . What was the wrong focus . The wrong focus was he wanted it to be about hurdles i had overcome, the hurdles that women face. He had me write a whole chapter just sort of summarizing my personal journey. And i thought it would be woven into the story, but it wouldnt be the story. And publishers came back saying, you know, if it was more about watergate, wed like to minter. He writes well and we like it she writtens well, and we like it. I was lucky enough to get on msnbc, and i said, well, maybe itd be different now that i have a platform, and we just didnt go forward with it. And then my lawyer who steve shepard, are you here . Steve, over there with a hand up, introduced me to flip, and flip agreed with me, and it got rewritten. And then paul gallo, where are you . Paul, few editor, who is the best thing mid editor, who is the best thing that ever happened. And he really got the story. I can tell you flip originally said, you know, you may not want to do this because hes a man, and he may not get the story. But paul got the story. And he asked me the most interesting questions. He said where do you see your book on a book shelf . And uhuh said, i dont and i said, i dont understand the question. And he said what book do you think it should be like, should be near . And i said Katherine Grahams biography, i just love that book. Is and he said, anything more modern . And i said katie tur rows book. He said, well, those are good answers, theres no wrong answer, but i see this as a combination of all the president s men and hidden figures. And the minute he said hidden figures, i went, oh, map. Yeah. He gets this. He really gets this. And i tried to keep that in mind as i selected stories because i can tell you there are hundreds and hundreds of stories and examples of stories that arent included in the book. But i tried to get the ones that personify that combination of the investigation, getting the truth but also what it was like to be the only woman in the room. So i want to start being the only woman in the room because it and when you read this book, it really is this intertwined kind of personal narrative around this really critical period in our history and really important legal work that was central to protecting our constitution. First of all, we both went to columbia law school, but there were only yes with. You can clap for columbia law school. [applause] but when you went, you were one of 15 women in the entire law school, which is in the book, and when i went, you know, we were about 50 , close to 50 of the law school. And ill ill bet that nobody said to you someone will die in vietnam because you took their rightful place in the class, and youre keeping them from getting a deferment. And besides, youll never practice law, so why are you here. I definitely did not get that [laughter] and that is why im not in prison right now. [laughter] and thank you for not murdering anyone. But, you know, those kinds of constant challenges, and then you go to the you end up in the department of justice, but youre finish and youre there doing very serious cases. Id love for you to talk a little bit about both getting to the department of justice because you original were going to be a journalist Katherine Graham and then you end up in the department of justice which is how you with end up on the watergate team. But in all of those being the only woman. And so can you just tell us a little bit about traveling that path at a time when women were not traveling that path. Well, i started law school because jobs offered to girls and let me just say the title was not one i invented, and when i first heard it, i went, girl . Im not having a book with the name girl nut. And then my you would to have pointed out editor pointed out how many bestsellers have the word girl in it, and i thought, well, maybe thats not such a bad idea. [laughter] but i was called a girl. I was offered jobs on what was then the womans page as a journalist, and i wanted to do news. I didnt want to report on social events. And so id had a read a book in college called gived onwiths trumpet by anthony gideons trumpet by anthony lewis, and i remembered reading on the back jacket that he had gone to harvard law school. So i, very ridiculously assumed, that if he went and was a great writer, it would help me, and you would to haves would take me more editors would take me more seriously. I had taken the law are boards as a fluke, and i had never taken the graduate record exam if, so i couldnt go to graduate school in journalism. After my first year i thought there has to be a better way to get a job in journalism. I hated law school. And if you dont want to be a lawyer, the first years bad enough even if you want to be a lawyer. But if you dont, its torture. So i took a leave of absence and i got a job at the assembly of captive european nation it is, an organization of all the former leaders of what were then captive soviet cups, lithuania, romania, etc. Which i now know was a cia front. So i actually was a cia front person [laughter] which i didnt know until researching my book. [laughter] dont tell Bernie Sanders. Hell like me a lot better. [laughter] okay. Sorry, no politics of that nature, sorry. Although i am running as a biden delegate. [applause] so i took the year off and decided i hated leaving anything undone. Im just one of those people if i start a bad book, i have to finish it. And now at this age i, like, if i dont like a movie, i actually do walk out. But anyway, i within went back to law school, and i had done very well the first year. So i was in the National Competition the second year, and i sort of liked that. And then i took trial practice, and i did pretty well at that. So i thought, well, maybe i should pay back my student loans, and you should get a job i should get a job in trial practice. And i was lucky enough and this is the theme of my life, networking. Networking is so important to skill. When you read the book, youll see that my first husband does not fare so well. Were going to get to them. There are a few things i can say if i stretch my imagination. [laughter] one of them was that his sister went to brown and came to live with us in washington. He said i decided i want to get a job at the fcc, were moving to washington. Id had accepted a job in new york, i was studying for the new york bar, is so you get the picture of what kind of marriage if i had. He came toll visit us, and she wanted to she came to visit us, and she wanted to see her best friend, jerry mcdowell, and they invited us to dinner. He happened to be in the organized crime section, and when he heard i was looking for a job mob bosses. What . Mob bosses. Yeah. Just happens to end up prosecuting mob bosses. But that was the reason that they gave for why i ended up doing appeals beyond the time all lawyers in the organized crime section start in appeals which is a great thing because you see the mistakes the trial lawyers make, and then you hopefully dont make those same mistakes, you make your own. And so i finally had to figure out as the only woman and there was no one i could go ask what to do, and i went to see the big boss of the organized crime section who ended up playing a role in watergate. We can talk about that later. And i said, so, henry, how can the guys are trying cases and im still doing appeals . And he said, well, because youre a girl, and youd be much more vulnerable in a courtroom. In appeals its just lawyer, but in the courtroom, youd be with made members of the mafia. And so e said you didnt notice my sex when you hired me . He said, well, i dont know. Thats sort of how i got my first trial. But it was in alaska. I think they thought that was far enough away and safe enough. [laughter] let me just say also that i could not wear pants in court, so im in 30 below zero in alaska, the jurors are or wearing muck lucks and flannellined pants, and im wearing a skirt. Having to practice law as a woman with stupid rules. Right. So but you get, and you actually had to advocate for yourself, right, is your point. But then you got trials. Now, tell us how you get on to the watergate team. So youre already, you know, the only woman doing, you know, trying these mob cases which is, you know, yeah, no joke. But then, you know, here is one of the most sensitive, politically explosive, important, historic investigations really at that point in the history of the nation. How does that happen . Well, first of all, when it started, we didnt know that it would turn out to be what it was. It could have been anybody remember billygate . Something about beer and jimmy carters brother . I mean,nd have been that. It could have been that. We didnt know. But i had been at justice for long enough that i felt, okay, if i leave, i can always go into privacy practice. And, in fact, if i dont leave, i wont be able to go into private practice because if you stay too long, law firms will assume you stayed too long and wont hire you. My mentor who was the head of the organized crime section and one of the smartest, best lawyers in the history of the country, he ended up being bill clintons white House Counsel during the impeachment, and he was the one i went to alaska with, by the way. He was the one who said, yes, i have a trial, and i want you to second chair it. And he was my mentor. He was brilliant and fabulous. And he was hired by the Watergate Special prosecutor and gave my name to them, and they called me in for an interview. It was one of the strangest interviews ive ever had. I walked into the office of jim who had come from harvard, and he said, when are you ready to start . And i said, well, right now. And he said, no, i mean start the job. Dont have you have any questions . No, ive checked out your record, and we want you to start. And i said, well, i need at least a month to wrap with up my cases. He said if youre saying that to be polite, we can clear it, and you can start tomorrow. I literally worked two jobs trying to wrap up my cases and start at the watergate office. So thats how it happened. Now one of the things, so youre not only the only woman, they had already decided they were going to hire you because of your record. But it was a fairly short record and very young, right . Three years, i think, doing organized crime . Yeah. But one of the things, so here you are, but it does become color this is a pretty important, big deal pretty quickly, or at least had the . By the time i started, mccord who was one of the burglars but also the security chief for the committee known to reelect the president known as creep, and i will call it that from now on [laughter] had written a letter to the judge saying you know, your honor, youre right. In all the pressure youve with put on us, you were right. We lied, other people lied, hush money was with paid to keep us quiet. So that letter was public by the time archie cox was hired. So it was pretty clear that this was not what the white house called a third rate burglary, that it was a political crime. And so we knew pretty much that we were into something big. So one of the things that you say in the book, so you know its going to be important, you know its a ton of pressure and theres a ton of pressure if on you in addition because you are the only woman, to the pressure of being the woman who cannot fail, right . Because you may fail for other women in the future. That is definitely something we still sometimes carry, unfortunately. If anybody in the room has a younger sister, you know you had to do it right or your younger sister didnt get to do it. And that was like, okay, i didnt mess this up. But so, or yes. And you obviously did not mess watergate up either. But one of the things that happened is, and now were going to get back to the husband. [laughter] the husband. Second husband is good. Second husbands good, first husband not so much. So one of the things you tribe in the book is how e you describe in the book is how emotional hi and psychologically abusive your husband is at a time when youre carrying not only a critically are important case for the country, but huge personal pressure that youre putting on yourself to be successful for other women. How did you navigate that . Because there are lots of parts of the book where you talk about having doubts, you know, wondering about yourself, having to kind of push or and propel yourself forward. Thats hard enough for any of us when we are in high pressure, high stress situationings. But when you have the person you go home to at night, like taking you down a peg constantly, how did you manage that . Number one, im very good at corm compartmentalizing and sup processing. In part because it was such a bad marriage, i didnt want to be at home. Andso i worked really hard. If something extra needed to be done, i volunteered. I was perfectly happy to do it. There was the nothing drawing me to be at home. If i had been married to michael banks, my current husband, i dont know that i would have taupe that because i like being with him, and i dont feel belittled by him. And part of the reason that i stayed in the bad marriage and part of the reasons that im sharing this story is because i think im not alone in this. Of i think there are so many women who blame themselves, and in my era it was my fault, and its also within my power to fix this. I believed i was responsible for fixing it and kept trying to do it until i finally got a good therapist who said on the first time i saw him, this is not your problem. And it took me three years of seeing him before i was willing to even confront my husband about how he treated me. And all of my friends saw what was happening, and not one of them said anything to me. Because they were afraid that they would lose my friendship, that i would turn against them. And and i understand that. I am not judging them. I probably would have tone the same thing. But when i thought people would be shocked that we were separate, everyone said, oh, thank god, we dont know how you stayed that long. [laughter] it was just amazing. And i think theres one exchange that i have thats in the book about rick, i call him, hes now an adult and hes called richard. My last day in washington we spent the day together walking around, and one of his questions was how did you ever stay we saw how he treated you. And during watergate they would try to find ways to exclude spouses so he wouldnt be at events that we had. They just didnt want him around. So it was obviously stressful and terrible, is and im not sure that i took the right approach to solving my problem, but it was what i did. So one of the things that comes up in the book, and i finish theres this really interesting, is that youre the only woman on the prosecutors side, but then theres the only woman on nixons side, right . So lets talk about her, because i just find it interesting that theres this and you actually have some sympathy for her. I do. Or i do now. And i did a little bit then but it wasnt as in my intellect as it is now. It was important what id love for you to tell everyone is both the importance of how important she became to the watergate case and how important became the prosecutor who was requesting her and essentially busts watergate wide open. First, lets start with it was a significant turning point for the case. It really turned the American Public against nixon. Nixon won 49 states and a huge landslide in the popular vote. He was not can he wa