Harry Dexter White

White, an assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Roosevelt administration, appeared before HUAC on August 13, 1948 to deny Elizabeth Bentley's charge that he had been a spy.

During the hearing, White asked for time to rest during his testimony, saying he had a weak heart. The committee denied his request. White died three days later.

While White was still alive, Whittaker Chambers named him as an underground communist contact, but did not accuse him of espionage. In November 1948, however, Chambers turned over to the government several sheets of yellow legal paper in White's handwriting, saying they had been given to him by White and subsequently stored in Nathan Levine's dumbwaiter for ten years along with documents he had gotten from Alger Hiss. No proof was ever offered that White actually gave the sheets to Chambers. The defense believed that Chambers or a confederate took the pages from White's desk or trash container. 

Chambers also claimed (after White's death) that he and Hiss made a trip to Peterborough, New Hampshire in 1937 to visit White. Hiss's attorneys were able to cast doubt on that story. See entries for Lucy Davis and J. Kellogg-Smith for more on the trip.