Lee Pressman

Pressman was a classmate of Alger Hiss's at Harvard Law School and his colleague in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in the early days of the New Deal. Whittaker Chambers said Hiss and Pressman were members of the same underground Communist study group in Washington during the 1930s.

Pressman stayed quiet until 1950, when he waived his rights and agreed to testify before HUAC. Before the committee, Pressman acknowledged the existence of the underground group and admitted having been a member. He stated that Hiss had not been a member of this group at any time. His testimony was cited in Hiss's motion for a new trial. The government responded with an affidavit from Nathaniel Weyl, saying Hiss had been a member (no one else, including Chambers, had previously mentioned Weyl's name in association with the group).