Also unlike today, Hiss was sent to prison two years after the hearings.
Chambers had accused Hiss of being an undercover agent for the Kremlin. Hiss vehemently denied the charges. Referring to the disputed statements between the two men, Committee Chairman J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey began the proceedings, informing both witnesses that, “certainly one of you will be tried for perjury.” After more than six hours of testimony, the day of questioning ended inconclusively. In an open letter dated August 24, 1948, Hiss claimed that the committee needed to end its “verdict-first-and-testimony later tactics.” After the hearings, many Republicans asserted that the investigation demonstrated that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were soft on communism; Democrats claimed it was a “smear” campaign. Committee investigators subsequently turned up additional evidence against Hiss, and a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of perjury. In 1950, a trial jury convicted Hiss and he was sentenced to five years in prison.Always true to form, the 1948 Democrats sided with the communist spy just like in 2018 they are siding with the intelligence community traitors and subversives.
Chambers worked himself to death, trying to get the word out. Of course, the dissipated lifestyle he lived as a younger man, and while in the clutches of communism, took a heavy toll on his body, as well. He died young, but he died in the arms of Jesus; it will be my privilege to meet him in that great eternal day.