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Alger Hiss (view source)

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→‎Hiss' suit against Chambers: copy edit

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Finally, [[#refChronology|after a month]], Hiss filed his long-threatened slander suit against Chambers.

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==Hiss' suit against Chambers==

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==Hiss's suit against Chambers==

===The Baltimore Documents===

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In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss' attorney William L. Marbury asked Chambers if he had "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss—"one of the most disastrous questions ever asked at a deposition."<ref>[[#refBerresford92|Berresford 1992]]: 10</ref> Marbury "never expected ([[#refLindPump|nor would he have asked]] for, had he known) the response that he received." Chambers retrieved [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/envelope.jpg the packet] he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden [[#refTime12.20.48|in a dumbwaiter shaft]]. Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss' attorneys 65 pages of typewritten documents and [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=source%3Alife%20%22pumpkin%20papers%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi handwritten memoranda], some so sensitive that for security reasons they could [[#refHissAppellate|not safely be made public]], though already a decade old. Chambers' attorney introduced the documents:

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In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss's attorney William L. Marbury asked Chambers if he had "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss—"one of the most disastrous questions ever asked at a deposition."<ref>[[#refBerresford92|Berresford 1992]]: 10</ref> Marbury "never expected ([[#refLindPump|nor would he have asked]] for, had he known) the response that he received." Chambers retrieved [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/envelope.jpg the packet] he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden [[#refTime12.20.48|in a dumbwaiter shaft]]. Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss's attorneys 65 pages of typewritten documents and [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=source%3Alife%20%22pumpkin%20papers%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi handwritten memoranda], some so sensitive that for security reasons they could [[#refHissAppellate|not safely be made public]], though already a decade old. Chambers' attorney introduced the documents:

{{cquote|Let's identify these papers by reading the first and last words of each one into the record... 'Tokyo... February 12, KENNEDY.' 'Paris... February 15, 1938... Secretary of State... Signed BULLITT.' 'Vienna... February 13, 1938... Secretary of State... Signed WILEY.' 'Rome... March 29... The Embassy learns... Signed PHILLIPS.' 'Warsaw... March 29... I learn following in strictest confidence... Signed BIDDLE.'<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 214-215</ref>}}

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Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that all but one of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1) The FBI laboratory determined that the remaining [http://www.life.com/image/72404528 handwritten memorandum] supplied by Chambers was [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/FBI_Memorandum_identifying_Harry_Dexter_White_as_agent_Jurist in the handwriting] of [[Harry Dexter White]], just as [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19491129&id=CocNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3777,2653357 Chambers testified].</ref> Among the documents confirmed by Hiss' own documents experts to be in his handwriting (contradicting [[#refNYRB2|his denial]]) was a [http://www.documentstalk.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/bdocs_hiss_note_to_martin.jpg summary of a telegram]<ref>This image is hosted on DocumentsTalk.com, a Web site "underwritten, [http://hnn.us/comments/135793.html perhaps entirely], by THE NATION INSTITUTE," which is [[#refDTN:OSI|in turn funded]] by [[George Soros]].</ref> that Chambers had [[#refNYRB|quoted almost verbatim]] in an article he gave Herbert Solow in 1938.

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Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that all but one of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1) The FBI laboratory determined that the remaining [http://www.life.com/image/72404528 handwritten memorandum] supplied by Chambers was [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/FBI_Memorandum_identifying_Harry_Dexter_White_as_agent_Jurist in the handwriting] of [[Harry Dexter White]], just as [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19491129&id=CocNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3777,2653357 Chambers testified].</ref> Among the documents confirmed by Hiss's own documents experts to be in his handwriting (contradicting [[#refNYRB2|his denial]]) was a [http://www.documentstalk.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/bdocs_hiss_note_to_martin.jpg summary of a telegram]<ref>This image is hosted on DocumentsTalk.com, a Web site "underwritten, [http://hnn.us/comments/135793.html perhaps entirely], by THE NATION INSTITUTE," which is [[#refDTN:OSI|in turn funded]] by [[George Soros]].</ref> that Chambers had [[#refNYRB|quoted almost verbatim]] in an article he gave Herbert Solow in 1938.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Donegan told the FBI that Assistant Attorney General Alexander M. Campbell, head of the Criminal Division at Truman Justice, “now wants to institute perjury charges against Chambers” for not revealing the documents before this. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten addendum comments, “I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also.”<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, November 23, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> The Truman administration's determination to indict Chambers rather than Hiss was unusual, as two leading scholars of the case note:

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===The Pumpkin Papers===

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[[Image:09905 2004 001 a.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]Hiss' attorneys turned over the documents to the [[Harry Truman|Truman]] [[Justice Department]], which immediately impounded and sequestered them. While proceeding with its plans of "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury,"<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> Truman Justice continued to formulate no such plans regarding Hiss. On December 1, the Washington ''Daily News'' reported that "the Justice Department is about ready to drop its investigation of the celebrated Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers controversy."<ref>[[#refTL50|Toledano Lasky]]: 216</ref> The next day, on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> [[HUAC]] attempted to get copies of the documents from Justice, but the Truman administration continued to stonewall. In desperation, [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] asked Chambers whether he had any other such material in his possession. The answer was yes.<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref>

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[[Image:09905 2004 001 a.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]Hiss's attorneys turned over the documents to the [[Harry Truman|Truman]] [[Justice Department]], which immediately impounded and sequestered them. While proceeding with its plans of "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury,"<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> Truman Justice continued to formulate no such plans regarding Hiss. On December 1, the Washington ''Daily News'' reported that "the Justice Department is about ready to drop its investigation of the celebrated Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers controversy."<ref>[[#refTL50|Toledano Lasky]]: 216</ref> The next day, on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> [[HUAC]] attempted to get copies of the documents from Justice, but the Truman administration continued to stonewall. In desperation, [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] asked Chambers whether he had any other such material in his possession. The answer was yes.<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref>

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On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC chief investigator Robert Stripling on his Maryland farm to a [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkin.jpg pumpkin he had hollowed out] the night before and in which he had secreted [[#refTime75|five rolls]] (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been [[#refHissAppellate|light struck]]) of [[#refTime75|35 millimeter film]]. The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers").<ref>National Archives and Records Administration, [http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/060.html General Records of the Department of Justice (Record Group 60) 1790-1989, 1991]: 60.3.5 Miscellaneous records: Microfilm copy of evidence ("Pumpkin Papers") used in U.S. v. Alger Hiss, 1948-51 (5 rolls). Microfilm Publications: M1491. Photographs (263 images: Documents reproduced from the "Pumpkin Papers," and used in U.S. v. Alger Hiss, 1948-51.</ref> The State Department documents dealt with a [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/ppboyce.jpg wide] [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pphissnote.jpg variety] of [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pplockhart.jpg subjects], including [[#refLindPump|U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union]], the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria. Some of the documents on the film were [[#refNYRB|initialed by Hiss and came from his office]]. Some were of a [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html highly sensitive, classified nature]. Some State Department cables bearing Hiss' handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 116</ref>

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On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC chief investigator Robert Stripling on his Maryland farm to a [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkin.jpg pumpkin he had hollowed out] the night before and in which he had secreted [[#refTime75|five rolls]] (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been [[#refHissAppellate|light struck]]) of [[#refTime75|35 millimeter film]]. The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers").<ref>National Archives and Records Administration, [http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/060.html General Records of the Department of Justice (Record Group 60) 1790-1989, 1991]: 60.3.5 Miscellaneous records: Microfilm copy of evidence ("Pumpkin Papers") used in U.S. v. Alger Hiss, 1948-51 (5 rolls). Microfilm Publications: M1491. Photographs (263 images: Documents reproduced from the "Pumpkin Papers," and used in U.S. v. Alger Hiss, 1948-51.</ref> The State Department documents dealt with a [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/ppboyce.jpg wide] [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pphissnote.jpg variety] of [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pplockhart.jpg subjects], including [[#refLindPump|U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union]], the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria. Some of the documents on the film were [[#refNYRB|initialed by Hiss and came from his office]]. Some were of a [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html highly sensitive, classified nature]. Some State Department cables bearing Hiss's handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 116</ref>

According to Chambers, some of the microfilm was made by a contact he knew only as "Felix," who would photograph documents with a Leica purchased by the Communist underground. For such work, said Chambers, Felix had been trained in Moscow, where he traveled on a forged U.S. passport. In 1949 Chambers would lead FBI investigators to the Baltimore block on which he thought Felix had lived in the 1930s. The Bureau discovered that a Felix Inslerman had lived on the block, later moving to Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked on a secret guided-missile project, in 1946 becoming one of the few civilians to attend the atomic tests at Bikini.

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Both before the grand jury and in the second Hiss trial, Inslerman would refuse to answer questions on grounds of potential self-incrimination. But in Inslerman's Schenectady home, the FBI found a Leica whose imperfections matched the scratch marks on Chambers' famed pumpkin film. In 1954, Inslerman would corroborate Chambers' story [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,819479,00.html under oath]. He would later turn up on the "[[Gorsky memo]]" (code-named 107th), as would another photographer identified by Chambers, "David Carpenter" (David Zimmerman),<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Vassiliev Concordance]]: 28</ref> code-named 103rd.<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 39; Trans. 77</ref> Recently released files reveal that the third photographer identified by Chambers,<ref>[[#refBerle|Berle memo]]</ref> ex-[[GRU]] agent<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 166</ref> William Edward Crane [[#refNYRB|admitted to the FBI]] that he photographed documents from the Treasury and State Department for Chambers in Baltimore.<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig, 39; Trans. 77 (cf. [[#refBLH05|Bachman, Leich, Haynes 2005]]; [[#refLowCher|Lowenthal, Chervonnaya 2005]]); [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 30</ref>

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The Truman administration demanded that HUAC turn over the film, but Nixon refused. He allowed Justice Department officials to view the film, and gave them copies, but would not surrender the film until Justice supplied HUAC with copies of the sequestered Baltimore documents. With no other option, Truman Justice finally called Chambers to testify before a hastily-reconvened [[#refBentleyGJ|grand jury]] on December 6—more than 16 months after it had originally convened. That day, Hiss' attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a [http://www.whittakerchambers.org/images/woodstocktypewriterno5_300dpi250x200pxl.png Woodstock typewriter], Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss' 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss' lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss swore under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition [[#refNYRB|of the typewriter]]. While the FBI was off on a wild-goose chase searching used-typewriter stores, on the basis of false information furnished by Hiss,<ref>John J. Danahy, "The Alger Hiss Case," Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, 2nd Ed. (Turner Publishing Company, 1998) ISBN 1563114739, p. 74</ref> his brother Donald tracked down the Catletts and retrieved the typewriter.

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The Truman administration demanded that HUAC turn over the film, but Nixon refused. He allowed Justice Department officials to view the film, and gave them copies, but would not surrender the film until Justice supplied HUAC with copies of the sequestered Baltimore documents. With no other option, Truman Justice finally called Chambers to testify before a hastily-reconvened [[#refBentleyGJ|grand jury]] on December 6—more than 16 months after it had originally convened. That day, Hiss's attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a [http://www.whittakerchambers.org/images/woodstocktypewriterno5_300dpi250x200pxl.png Woodstock typewriter], Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss's 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss's lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss swore under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition [[#refNYRB|of the typewriter]]. While the FBI was off on a wild-goose chase searching used-typewriter stores, on the basis of false information furnished by Hiss,<ref>John J. Danahy, "The Alger Hiss Case," Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, 2nd Ed. (Turner Publishing Company, 1998) ISBN 1563114739, p. 74</ref> his brother Donald tracked down the Catletts and retrieved the typewriter.

Hiss would later change his story, testifying that he gave the typewriter to the Catletts in 1937, before the date of the documents produced by Chambers. Pat Catlett, however, would tell defense lawyers that Hiss gave the Catletts the typewriter in the [[#refHissAppellate|spring of 1938]], just after the dates of the documents.

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On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss' typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, [[#refNYRB|a Woodstock]].

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On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss's typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, [[#refNYRB|a Woodstock]].

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Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss' attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "[[#refNYRB2|typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099]]"—the Hiss' machine.

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Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss's attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "[[#refNYRB2|typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099]]"—the Hiss's machine.

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On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss' typewriter,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 300</ref>

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On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss's typewriter,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 300</ref>

That day, [[#refChronology|Hiss testified]] that he never gave any documents to Whittaker Chambers, and that he had no contact with Chambers after January 1, 1937. The same day, the grand jury indicted Hiss on [[#refBentleyGJ|two counts of perjury]], charging that he [[#refLinder03|lied under oath]] in both these statements. Because the five-year statute of limitations [[#refLinder03|had expired]], the grand jury could not consider espionage charges.

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