In an interview with Assistant Secretary of State, Whittaker Chambers names Hiss and his brother Donald as having being targeted for possible recruitment by members of the communist underground.
Chambers testifies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that Hiss was a member of an underground Communist Party group. (He says the purpose of the group was not espionage and also testifies that he left the Party in 1937.)
In a public hearing that is in essence a staged event for television cameras, Hiss and Chambers both testify. This is the first Congressional hearing ever televised.
Hiss goes to prison. Most of his sentence is served at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a medium-security facility 100 miles west of New York City.
