Several years ago, I did a series of taped interviews with Bill Reuben going over Allen Weinstein’s “Perjury” allegation by allegation. It makes for fascinating reading, and I hope to post the entire interview one day.
Anyway, toward the end of the interview, Bill leaned over and spoke into the microphone and said, “I’ve always wanted to get something on the record before I died, and it’s this: The only two people connected to the Hiss case with any real typing ability and who could have typed the Baltimore Documents were Pat Nixon and Esther Chambers.”
I thought of that today when I opened the latest packet of information from the FBI. This one contained the FBI’s file on Pat Nixon. As I leafed through the file, I came across this file and burst out laughing. Take a look:
Chambers’s wife, Esther, testified in November 1948 that she had worked as a clerk and typist at several jobs prior to 1933 when she became pregnant and quit working outside the home. However, on December 15, 1948, the day Alger Hiss was indicted for perjury, Whittaker Chambers swore under oath before the grand jury the following:
Q: Mr. Chambers, do you use a typewriter?
A: Yes, I do.
Q: Does Mrs. Chambers?
A: I don’t recall Mrs. Chambers typing.
Q: You don’t know that she typed?
A: She certainly doesn’t know typewriting.
But this is only typical of the hundreds of brazen (actually senseless and often unnecessary) lies Whittaker Chambers told under oath.