Um, She said repeatedly that the $50K was lost....
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"What I was talking about is I ran for judge. When I ran for judge,
I took $50,000 of my personal money out of my retirement and that money ended up being lost. And I know when you bet on yourself, you're going to have to bet money on yourself. And so, what I was talking about was not wanting to go to the personal financial expense of running for office. By no means that I think that I was going to be financially in a bad position once I won. Let's talk about what I was up against because it's important to understand that comment.
I had a district attorney who had been here for 24 years. You put -- no, no, no, this is very relevant as to what my mindset was about this. So I'm trying to answer your question. So what I was saying is --
JUDGE: So it's a finance.
WILLIS: Right. But it is about my finances if I didn't -- nobody put me in this seat, so I had already run for office once.
I had spit $50,000 of my own money running and it was then moot, nothing.
And so when I'm talking to those offers, I'm talking about the contemplation of the sacrifice of the run, not the sacrifice of once you become D.A. The odds were against me. I was likely going to lose the election based on who I was running against.
So that needs to be in the appropriate context.
MERCHANT: Isn't it true that the authors also wrote and you can dispute this if you'd like, that you were broke after that race?
WILLIS: The 2018 race.
MERCHANT: Yes.
WILLIS: Yeah, that was a hard race. I wasn't broke like I didn't have any broke is relative to depending where you are,
but that hurt to lose that $50,000. So I'm sure my mental mindset was like I just gave 50,000 hours away.
MERCHANT: Right. So they characterized it from their conversations with you that you were broke, you had poured your own money into the campaign and you weren't able to pay your own bills because of your I'm sorry -- your clients couldn't pay their bills to you and you had a paltry array of family and asset forfeiture cases. It says you were trying to make it month to month.
Is that an accurate depiction of your financial situation that point?
WILLIS: I would want to read that, but I don't -- I don't remember clients not being able to pay their bills. So --
MERCHANT: That part, Judge?
JUDGE: You may.
WILLIS: I have not read this book.
So -- so like this fact here, her ex-husband Fred (INAUDIBLE) to a financial -- I have no information about that.
MERCHANT: I didn't ask you about that. I just asked about if you were -- what they represent from their interviews and then you had clients that want able to pay their bills.
WILLIS: Can you show me where that is? Because this is where you put the tabs. So that's what I read.
MERCHANT: Broke, but couldn't pay their bills.
WILLIS:
Yeah, that that I'm sure I characterize myself. I was broke as leaving that $50,000. I don't know that I had-- her nascent law practice had paltry, I didn't have --
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIS: I attest -- I thought I had a law practice, so this is not correct. I'm sure just I didn't have any asset forfeiture cases. So I had one case where they had took one of my client's money at the airport.
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That's -- I don't know if that's what they're char -- I don't know. On paltry array, I did have family law cases. I guess that's what they're talking about, and clients who couldn't pay their bills and clients. So, no.
MERCHANT: So, my question was just if this was a fair and accurate representation where it says you are trying to make it month to month, that that --
WILLIS: No, I don't think that that is actually a fair and accurate representation, but
I am certain that after the 2018 election I'm still not really happy about having given up that 50,000.