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→House Committee on Un-American Activities (Redux): added Hughes interview
That March, in a bid to steal the [[GOP]]'s thunder,<ref>[[#refOlmstead02|Olmstead 2002]]: 114</ref> Truman enacted a "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 loyalty program]"—despite which, according to [[State Department]] security files, there were still [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html 108 cases] there the following autumn.
That March, in a bid to steal the [[GOP]]'s thunder,<ref>[[#refOlmstead02|Olmstead 2002]]: 114</ref> Truman enacted a "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 loyalty program]"—despite which, according to [[State Department]] security files, there were still [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html 108 cases] there the following autumn.
Even before the [[#refBentleyGJ|grand jury]] convened, the [[FBI]] learned that the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration was planning to subvert the grand jury process to cover up the [[USSR|Soviet]] penetration problem.<ref>One FBI memo would report that [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] [[Department of Justice|Justice]] wanted the FBI to interview the [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] suspects, with an eye to “presenting the evidence to a grand jury with the idea of letting them [http://www.answers.com/topic/no-bill no bill] the case. Further that in the event [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000175 Congressman Thomas] of the [[HUAC|Un-American Committee]] should ever [http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/highlights.html?action=view&intID=169 raise a question], it would be possible to answer by saying that the grand jury had considered the evidence and it had not deemed it sufficient to justify criminal action.” (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 96)</ref> The grand jury convened on July 22, 1947; nearly a year later, on July 20, 1948 (never having heard Whittaker Chambers' testimony) it handed down indictments—not of any federal employees, but of the open leaders of the above-ground [[Communist Party]]—not for espionage, but for violations of the [[Smith Act]].<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 171, fn</ref>
Even before the [[#refBentleyGJ|grand jury]] convened, the [[FBI]] learned that the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration, acutely aware that "an untimely public disclosure about Hiss could easily have torpedoed Truman's hopes for the 1948 Presidential election,"<ref>Charles Stuart Kennedy, [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?mfdip:2:./temp/~ammem_GoLZ:: Interview with Thomas L. Hughes], Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, July 7, 1999</ref> was planning to subvert the grand jury process in order to cover up the [[USSR|Soviet]] penetration problem.<ref>One FBI memo would report that [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] [[Department of Justice|Justice]] wanted the FBI to interview the [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] suspects, with an eye to “presenting the evidence to a grand jury with the idea of letting them [http://www.answers.com/topic/no-bill no bill] the case. Further that in the event [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000175 Congressman Thomas] of the [[HUAC|Un-American Committee]] should ever [http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/highlights.html?action=view&intID=169 raise a question], it would be possible to answer by saying that the grand jury had considered the evidence and it had not deemed it sufficient to justify criminal action.” (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 96)</ref> The grand jury convened on July 22, 1947; nearly a year later, on July 20, 1948 (never having heard Whittaker Chambers' testimony) it handed down indictments—not of any federal employees, but of the open leaders of the above-ground [[Communist Party]]—not for espionage, but for violations of the [[Smith Act]].<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 171, fn</ref>
The [[Republican]] Congress responded by opening its own investigation of espionage suspects including [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss. The [[Democrat]] Truman stonewalled, issuing a Presidential Directive that cut Congress off from all access to FBI and other information on loyalty or security cases:
The [[Republican]] Congress responded by opening its own investigation of espionage suspects including [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss. The [[Democrat]] Truman stonewalled, issuing a Presidential Directive that cut Congress off from all access to FBI and other information on loyalty or security cases: