Good evening, everyone. Im just so so glad here tonight. Im going good evening everyone i am glad you are here tonight i will say a few words about the strand before he welcome tonights guest. For a moment of history the strand was founded 93 years ago by my grandfather. [applause] thank you. He founded the store in the area known as book row on fourth row one Fourth Avenue just around the corner from here he decided on dash he decided while all the other 40 bookstores shuttered the store was passed on to my late father who grew the store to scale and popularity she never thought was possible so now i am the owner and im told i will get wiped out in this digital age so in the book Loving Community and in this audience thank you for not only surviving the thriving through the ages. [applause] so tonights book watergate girl without comparing it to todaysss headlines with the Womens Movement stood a young lawyer barely 30 yearse old and the only woman on the team that prosecuted the highest ranking white house officials admits the failing marriage her house robbed and privacy invaded she filed against the sexist preconception that according to the female counterparts two nights author msnbc legal analyst to began her career as an organized prosecutor at the Us Department of justice and also served as general counsel to the us army solicitor general and Deputy Attorney general of the state of illinois chief operating officer from the American Bar Association the first woman to hold these positions in each role in conversation with jill tonight is a National Expert to lobby the u. S. Congress and develop programs to transform racism in the us and south africa currently a University Professor at the new School University and also a legal analyst for msnbc and nbc news i also want to thank our agent for being in the audience and a big shout out to cspan for being here tonight. [applause] so please join me to welcome our guest to the strand. [cheers and applause] thank you and good evening thank you for being here. I am so excited to be in this conversation with jill who is my sisterinlaw. [applause] that is a literal. [laughter] but in spirit and in such a pleasure to read this book and i hope you all have purchased it and if you havent, you will and i just want to start with why write it not just an important set of stories but why did you write it she let me know just recently she started 2008 in case you thought she just started it because of donald trump. [laughter] i did i started in 2008 when i theoretically retired so i failed at retirement i went from retirement to be with very good friends in italy that are landing tomorrow so are not here tonight. And they said weve always said you should write a book what is your excuse s now . I had run out of excuses so i started to write a book. So then i dropped it and then the different vision and i wrote it to the specifications. And then to agree with me. And that is the focus but the wrong focus was he wanted it to be the hurdles i had overcome. Like one of the hurdles women face in high heels. And to summarize that journey. But it wouldnt be the story. But if its more about watergate we like it but not all about the personal stuff. I was lucky enough to get on msnbc and spoke again maybe now theres a difference i have ait d platform. We just didnt go forward with it and then my lawyer and then to introduce me to flip and he agreed and it got rewritten and then my editor who was the best thing that ever happened to was just wonderful. He got the story although flip originally said you may not want to use theme because he is a man and he may not get the story but paul got the story. Where do you see on a bookshelf . I understand the question and said what you think it should be near . I said catherine grahams biography. And he said something more modern. [laughter] with the book unbelievable because it captures the era and the campaign and in a very unique and interesting back tstory. And so the minute they said hidden fee on figures that he really gets this. And there are hundreds and hundreds of stories and then to get the ones that personified that investigation and getting t the truth and also what its like to be the only one in the room. So when you read the book so the intertwined personal narrative around a critical period in our history and one of the things that struck me. But when you went to were wine of 15 in the entire law school. Somebody will die in vietnam because you took their rightful place in the class and to keep them from getting a deferment. I definitely did not get that and thats why i am not in prison right now. [laughter] so those constant challenges to end up in the department of justice and then doing very serious cases. And then getting to the department of justice because originally you would be a journalist and then you end up on the watergate team both all of those being the only woman. And that jobs offered to girls and let me say the title is not one that i invented and when i first heard it i said girl . Of not having a book with the name girl in it. Then my editor pointed out how many bestsellers have the word girl. Maybe thats not such a bad idea. [laughter] but also it captures the era. I was called a girl. All of us were called girlsls. So it seemed like not a bad title. And then social events. So read a book in college by Anthony Lewis of the New York Times so i ridiculously assumed that it would help me and that the editors would take me more seriously for a journalism job so i applied and i took those law boards and i have never taken them so i cannot go to graduate e school so thats how i ended up in moscow and there has to be a better way to get a job in journalism because i hated law school. The first year is badghn enough even if you want to be a liar lawn a lawyer but even if you dont it is torture. I took a leave of absence i got a job at the assembly of european nations where all the former leaders of check soviet countries which i now know from research for my book was from the cia which i did not know that until researching my book so i was a cia person. [laughter] s although i am running as a biden delegate. [applause] so i took the year off and decided i hated to leave o anything undone so i have to finish this now at the stage i actually do walk out so i went back to law school and i had done very well so i was in the National Competition every year and i like that i like the trial practice and i thought maybe i should pay back my Student Loans and get a job in trial practice and i was lucky enough networking is so important you will see my first husband did not fare so well when you read the book. So one of them is his sister went to brown and came to visit us. And then to come home and say i decide i got a job accepted a job inn. New york studying for the new york bar but she came to visit us and want to see her best friend from brown and to invite my first husband and myself to dinner and to say give me your resume mob bosses. To end up prosecuting mob bosses. But that is the reason they gave why i ended up doing appeals beyond the time because that is a s great thing because you see the mistake trial lawyers make. Hopefully that will make those mistakes. You make your own so that i had to a figure out because theres nobody i could go ask what to do and those that played a role iner watergate. So henry, how come the guys are trying cases . He said because youre a girl and for members of the mafia. And you didnt notice my sex when you hired me . He said i dont know. And then that was in alaska. And safe enough to let mee just say we could not wear pants to court that was not allowed im wearing a skirt. And then having to practice law as a woman. And you actually had to advocate for yourself. But tell us how you get on to the watergate team. Prie because if you stay too long, and the law firms think they are to experience and they will not hire you pretty decide to not seem like a bad career risk. And my mentor, charles there was the head of the organized crime section, and one of the smartest and best lawyers in history of the country and he ended up being bill clintons white House Counsel during the impeachment. And he was the one that i went to alaska with by the way and he was the one who said yes, have a trial and you to second gerrit. Andas he was my mentor. He was brilliant and fabulous. He was hired by the special prosecutor. And gave my name to them and they called me in for an interview and it was one of the strangest interviews that ive ever had. I walk into the office of jim who had come from harvard with archie cox, he said that when youre ready to start when are you ready to start my civil, right now. And he said no start the job and i said was that a question. He said no i checked out your record and we wanted to start. So that was my Job Interview pretty nice employee need at least a month to u wrap up my ct cases. He said we can clear it and you can start tomorrow. And it literally worked two jobs for the twos first two weeks that was their turn drop of my stcases and start at the waterge of us pretty that is how it happened. Host so youre not the only woman had already decided they were going to hire you because of your record. So is a fairly short record. Jill three years doing organized crime. Host but it does become clear that this is a really important big deal pretty quickly. Our lease have the potential to be pretty there was a lot of pressure. Jill for the time i t started, also e security chief for the commute committee to reelect part the present, had written a letter to the judge on the eve of sentencings sentencing saying that you are right, honor and all of the pressure you put on us, you are right. We lied, other people id, hush money was paid to keep us quiet. So that letter was published by the times archie cox was hired. So is pretty clear that this was not with the white house called a thirdrate burglar that it was a political crime. And so we knew pretty much that we were into something big. Host someone of the things that you say in the book, you know it will be important. You know it is a ton of pressure in a ton pressure on you in addition because youre the only woman. So the pressure of being the woman who cannot fail. Because you may fail for other women in the future. Thats definitely something that we still carry. Speech of if anybody in the room has an older sister than you know that you had to do it right on your milker sicker sister did not get to do it. Thats just how it was. My proudestr moment is when i ws the first woman to be the general counsel of the army, my successor was a woman in that was like okay, did not mess this up. Host and obviously you do not mess up watergate either. One of the things that happened and now we will get back to the husband. [laughter]. Jill second husband is good. Its. Host but first husband not so h muchn how emotionally and psychologically abusive your husband h is. As time when you are carrying not only the critically reported cases of the country but huge personal pressure is your putting on yourself to be successful for other women. I o did you navigate that becaue there are lots of parts of the book where you talk about having wondering about yourself. Having to prove and propel yourselflf forward. It is hard enough for any of us when we are in High Pressure and high stress situations but when you have the person that you go gome toer at night, like taking you down a peg constantly. How did you manage that. Jill number one i am very good at compartment compartmentalized in concert suppressing. I was my survival technique and i just put it aside. In part because it was such a bad marriage printed did not want to be at home and so it worked really hard. If something extra needed to be done, i volunteered. I was perfectly happy to do it. There was nothing drunk me to be at home. I married to Michael Banks my current husband. I dont know the i wouldve done that. I like being with him and i dont feel belittled with him. I dont think im alone in this. I think so many women blame themselves. In my it was my fault and within my power to fix this. I could leave i was responsible for fixing it. I finally got a good therapist who said the first time i saw him says this is not your problem. And it took me three years of seeing him before i was even able to confront my husband about how he treated me. No my friend saw that was happening and that one of them said anything to me because they were afraid that they would lose my friendship and that i would turn against them i understand that. I understand that and im not judging them and i w probably would have done the same thing. But people wouldve been shocked that we were separating. And they said thank god we dont ayknow how long or how or why yu stayed alone. I think theres one exchange that i have that is in the book about rick i call him buddies now an adult so is called richard pretty,nd my last day in washington before i moved to chicago to marry michael, we spent the day together Walking Around one of his questions said we saw how he treated you and drink watergate they were trying to find reasons to exclude spouses so that he would not be an event that we had. We just did not want him around. Those obviously stressful and terrible and not sure that it took theoa right approach with y problems but it was what i did. Host one interesting thing that came up in the book is you were the only woman prosecutor side. But there was the only woman on nixons side. Lets talk about her. Find interesting. You actually have something for her. Jill if i do now. And i did a little bit then. But it wasnt in my intellect and then as it is now. Host tell how important she became to the watergate case and how you became the prosecutor who was questioning her and essentially bust watergate wide open. Jill it really turned the American Public against nixon he won 49 states and a huge landslide in the popular vote. It is a very popular president and did the things he passed titles. Ix help in china, he bet epa. Obviously he had moral failures. [laughter]. Significant once. Rosemary woods was then the secretary that she really was an advisor. I actually listen to tapes unrelated to the crime or none that we use were she was really advising him. She clearly was more than the secretary. She was aunt rose to his two daughters and shared close with his wife kat nixon, and i will depart for a second, i was on fresh air in answering a question, i really wanted to portray her as her family and friends knew her. But no one would talk to me. He said stop calling people, its too easy for them to hang up on you. Go knock on the door. So i flew to washington i knocked on the door that was slammed in my face. So i give up. Oui decided that i just cannot o it. I actually hired somebody but a journalist im not the polarizing figure that i appeared to be. That didnt work either. So i never got that side of it. As a result of saying that i had wanted to portray her sympathetically or accurately as her family and friends knew her, i got a phone call from her greatnephew. Her grandnephew, i mean. He said i will talk to you. Ill just tell you one of the stories because i i think i migt have another hard to add to the book. And from the stories that i am getting from him, and one is that he said that my mother is the daughter of joe woods it was the sheriff of the scanning the breast brother of rosemary woods. My mothers younger sister was named rose after rosemary woods. And i ready had an aunt rose and when a metric cannot call her aunt rose. Since they cannot have two at roses. Your uncle rose. Back in the whole family calling her uncle rose and get a great sense of humor and she that was cute and funny. She accepted being called uncle rose. In the whole time i was interviewing and talk to him for a couple ofe hours now, every time he said uncle rose, and he cant call her at rose. So i called her uncle rose. It was a very weird circumstance. Host you have john dean but nobody believes him. Do your point about how important she becomes as a witness because theyre saying no when he is saying about nixon and talking about hush money is not true. So people did not believe john dean. And you all blamed john dean. But you dont have any collaborating evidence and the publicly said the guy. Tell us how she becomes pivotal now you draw out the liar the coverup. Jill there are two answers that the first thing that is happened that there tapes and radio because if they collaborated what he had already publicly testified to, we had just made. But if they do not, who were dead. But there are any inconsistencies, so for example holloman said, when dean said that the president and said well i know where i can get the million dollars, holloman said yes but he didnt say that you said but it would be wrong. When we get the tapes, theres no doubt, he said i can get the money. So we knew we had to get those tapes and we knew we had to collaborate with them. So we subpoenaed them and there was a big about who we first picked nine tapes of a show for part of a criminal conspiracy and most of them were conversations with john dean. That he had said this is what it said. There werehe crimes. In southern the president stonewalled in ways and look pale in comparison to what is happening now but at the time pretty serious abuses of his power did not condemn and finally, the First Special prosecutor kelly press conference on saturday in washington but it just came up at that point and explain to the American Public while we had a right to theap tape and why we needed them and the president was very unimpressed and he said to his attorney general, finder back in the attorney general said that i promised the senate i wouldnt do it but if there were no cause and then he was fired and the Deputy Attorney general said the same and he was fired. And although theres questions is whether he must resign or fired, was sort of development, he was out. In the third in command, he carried out the order. That was what was known as the saturday night massacre. In three days after that, the public reaction was so, the outpouring was amazing. Not bags of mail. Knowing no, we were getting huge canvas bags u. S. Postal mail. On machine from of the telex letters. In three days later, he said employed to appoint a new this new prosecutor then you can have the tapes on halloween, and seemed appropriate to me, he said no i cant do your mind because two are missing. One was not recorded because it was a private residence and the others there was