Richard M. Nixon

At the time the Hiss case broke, Richard Nixon was a first-term Republican Congressman from California and a member of HUAC. It was Nixon who pursued Whittaker Chambers' story when other members of HUAC seemed ready to drop the matter after Hiss's impressive appearance before the committee in early August, 1948. 

Nixon's questionable behavior in 1948 included colluding with Chambers; leaking secret HUAC testimony; offering knowingly misleading testimony to the Hiss case grand jury.

Over the years, Nixon would be quoted on a number of occasions as having said that he and his associates either built or found the Woodstock typewriter, which was placed in evidence by the defense. Nixon's statements have raised continuing questions about whether the typewriter was planted and the evidence against Hiss forged. 

Nixon was elected to the United States Senate in 1950. He was twice elected vice president of the United States (in 1952 and 1956) and was twice elected president (in 1968 and 1972). In 1974, shortly before his expected impeachment by the House of Representatives for his illegal actions that led to the Watergate scandal, he became the first president to resign the office.