Judge OKs Release Of Romney Divorce Case Testimony

In newly unsealed testimony related to the divorce of Staples founder Tom Stemberg, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney claimed to have doubts about an investment he now cites as a major business success.

Transcripts of Romney's testimony show the former governor testified he was concerned about the business model for the office supply chain and disappointed by its initial performance.

Stemberg built Staples with a big investment from Romney's Bain Capital. Romney and Stemberg became friends and Stemberg has become an active supporter of Romney's presidential campaign. But Stemberg's ex-wife, Maureen, contested her divorce settlement in 1990, accusing her husband of cheating her out of her fair share of the value of his Staples stock.

The issue has come back in the last days of the presidential campaign because Maureen Stemberg wants to talk about the role Mitt Romney played through his testimony about the value of that stock.

In court Thursday, the judge ordered and no one objected to lifting the impoundment of Romney's testimony. But the judge made clear that the confidentiality agreement still bars Maureen Stemberg from talking about anything connected to the divorce case.

After the judge's ruling, hundreds of pages of Romney's testimony were released in which Romney talks about the startup of Staples and the value of the company's stock.

Stemberg's attorney says that all the claims that Maureen Stemberg has made and wants to talk about, including Romney's testimony, were litigated and rejected, not by one court but by two.

This post was updated with content from WBUR's Morning Edition.