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In the summer of 1936, [[J. Peters]] arranged a dummy transaction, according to Chambers, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WIkNAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Witness]'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html sold or] [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html loaned or given] the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car. But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it].

In the summer of 1936, [[J. Peters]] arranged a dummy transaction, according to Chambers, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WIkNAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Witness]'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html sold or] [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html loaned or given] the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car. But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it].

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html refuse to answer] questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html refuse to answer] questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/185/822/50085/ United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

{{cquote|…that Rosen [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 did lend himself to a dummy transaction concerning the Ford car].... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high [[Communist]]. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too but did not say so expressly.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53</ref>}}

{{cquote|…that Rosen [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 did lend himself to a dummy transaction concerning the Ford car].... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high [[Communist]]. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too but did not say so expressly.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53</ref>}}

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own, notarized by Hiss' [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would plunge down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to his [[death]]; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1</ref>

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own, notarized by Hiss' [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would plunge down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to his [[death]]; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1</ref>