150                                                                                       FREEDOM IS AS FREEDOM DOES

Matusow had sought out in order to tell his story. AU were harried
and harassed for a period of five months.

The grand jury began investigations on February 7, 1955, On
July 13, it handed down four indictments. Matusow himself was
charged with perjury for alleging that Roy Cohn had induced
him to testify falsely at the trial of the thirteen second-stiing
Communist leaders. Also indicted with Matusow were two New
York attorneys, R. Lawrence Siegel, general counsel of The Nation
for many years, and his associate. Miss Hadassah Shapiro. Both
were charged with obstructing justice, consphacy to obstiuet jus¬
tice, and perjury in connection with allegedly destioying records
of meetings between Matusow and Siegel. Another indictment for
obstiucting justice was returned against Martin Solow, assistant
to^the publisher of The Nation, who was accused of destioying,
before the grand jury called him, correspondence relating to
Matusow.

The Department of Justice made one concession during the
uproar over the Matusow affair. Attorney General Brownell an¬
nounced that the Department was abandoning the practice of
retaining, full-time "consultants" on communism at guaranteed
salaries. He said, however, that "expert witnesses" would still be
used and paid for testimony in specific cases.

Meanwhile, two Federal Communications Commission wit¬
nesses, Mrs. Marie Natvig and LoweU Watson, had publicly con¬
fessed that they had been lying. They had testffied in 1954 before
the FCC that Edward O. Lamb, broadcaster and pubHsher, who
was seeking to have the license renewed for his television station
at Erie, Pennsylvania, was guilty of dangerous Communist asso¬
ciations. Mr. Watson accused FCC lawyers and investigators of
"coaching" and "brain-washing" him into lying, while Mrs. Natvig
stated that FCC attorney Walter R. Powell, Jr., had "coerced"
her into "manufactured" testimony against Mr. Lamb.

The embarrassed Department of Justice promptiy took action
in regard to Mrs. Natvig's confession. But instead of launching an
investigation to find out whether her original testimony was tiue
or untrue, the Department obtained her indictment and eonvie-