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Defense's Closing Statement / 147
was no need to. Around that time Hiss also bought a new car. And how did he pay for it? He turned in his old car, got $325 in the trade-in, and paid off the rest in twelve monthly payments. If Hiss didn't have enough money to buy his car outright, why would he loan money to Chambers?
So how did Chambers know about this $400 withdrawal? The FBI knew about this bank withdrawal on January 31, 1949. At that time Chambers was spending day after day with the FBI. Now I am not criticizing anything the FBI did. But this case shows times of overzealousness on the part of some FBI men. So I can imagine some agent saying to Chambers, "Well, I notice a withdrawal from Hiss's bank account on November 19, 1937, of $400. Did you have any transaction then?" And then Chambers says, "Oh, yes, he loaned me that money for a car." I say this because the first time Chambers ever testified about that $400 loan was after the FBI had the bank records. And why didn't Mrs. Chambers know about this supposed loan? She has said that his mother probably gave them the money for the car. His mother had given them money very often.
Chambers hired investigators to find out about the colors of the houses and the furniture. But the investigators gave them many inaccurate details. Mrs. Chambers said the outside of the 30th Street house
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