Romney was examined by Joseph Walsh, the lawyer for Maureen Sullivan-Stemberg, in a suit against her ex-husband, Thomas G. Stemberg. The judge rules for Thomas Stemberg, the founder of Staples. The testimony was given in Norfolk, Mass. Probate Court on October 7, 1991.

Romney also suggested in another section of his testimony that he believed in the late 1980s that Staples had only a 25% chance of survival — a somewhat surprising comment given how central his investment in Staples has been to the narrative of his career as a master investor, and even to the video that introduced him at the Republican National Convention this year.