INVESTIGATIONS: Accuser Accused

From Harry Truman down, Administration Democrats hate New Jersey’s J. Parnell Thomas more than they do any other Republican Congressman. It was his House Un-American Activities Committee which dredged up the embarrassing issue of Communists in Government and kept yammering away at it. And for more than a month, Parnell Thomas has been accusing the Department of Justice of negligence in failing to act against some of those accused in his investigations.

Last week the Justice Department acted—but it acted against Investigator Thomas. A Federal Grand Jury in Washington began looking into charges, repeatedly printed by Columnist Drew Pearson, that Congressman Thomas had padded his office payroll with the names of several people who did no work and who kicked back to him all or part of their salaries. Attorney General Tom Clark’s lawyers proceeded under a statute which makes it a criminal offense to issue false statements to the Government. Conviction carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Although the proceedings were entirely legal, rednecked Parnell Thomas cried: “Vicious smear technique . . . cheap Pendergast politics.”