Indictment during the 'Red Scare' and rise to the head of the CPUSA [Communist Party USA]
Seen as a Moscow loyalist, Hall's reputation in the party rose after the war. In 1946 he was elected to the national executive board of the party under the new general secretary,
Eugene Dennis, a pro-Soviet Marxist–Leninist, who had replaced
Earl Browder after the latter's expulsion from the party.
[4][11]
Hall's mugshot, taken during his prison sentence in
Leavenworth, Kansas for "Conspiring and Teaching
Overthrow of the U.S. Government by Force or Violence".
Date 1954.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall#Background_and_early_political_activism
“Brennan said he decided to acknowledge his vote for Communist Gus Hall, the Communist Party USA’s four-time presidential candidate, when undergoing the lie detector test.”
“Now a major American communist leader in the post-war era, Hall caught the attention of US officials. On July 22, 1948, Hall and 11 other Communist Party leaders were indicted under the Alien Registration Act, popularly called the Smith act, on charges of “conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence”,..."
Hall’s initial prison sentence lasted for five years.[4]
Released on bail, Hall rose to the secretariat of the CPUSA.[2] When the Supreme Court upheld the Smith Act (June 4, 1951), Hall and three other men skipped bail and went underground.[4]
Hall’s attempt to flee to Moscow failed when he was picked up in Mexico City on October 8, 1951.[2][4] He was sentenced to three more years and eventually served over five and a half years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.[3]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall#Indictment_during_the_.27Red_Scare.27_and_rise_to_the_head_of_the_CPUSA
