Taylor was able to secure employment within the [[United States]] [[Department of the Treasury]] through Secretary [[Harry Dexter White]] in 1941. The Treasury Department sent him to [[China]] and later Lisbon, [[Portugal]] for the [[Foreign Economic Administration]]. Taylor also was a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA), in violation of federal employment statutes barring membership in an organization seeking the violent overthrow of the United States Government. As a CPUSA member and of the secret apparatus known as the [[Silvermaster group]] <ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/silversm.htm Silvermaster Group FBI FOIA]</ref>, Taylor supplied information orally and in document form to [[Soviet]] intelligence. | Taylor was able to secure employment within the [[United States]] [[Department of the Treasury]] through Secretary [[Harry Dexter White]] in 1941. The Treasury Department sent him to [[China]] and later Lisbon, [[Portugal]] for the [[Foreign Economic Administration]]. Taylor also was a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA), in violation of federal employment statutes barring membership in an organization seeking the violent overthrow of the United States Government. As a CPUSA member and of the secret apparatus known as the [[Silvermaster group]] <ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/silversm.htm Silvermaster Group FBI FOIA]</ref>, Taylor supplied information orally and in document form to [[Soviet]] intelligence. |