The Press: Base But Not Guilty

By his own lawyer's statement to the jury, Paul Hughes, 35, is "base, venal, greedy" and "a louse," who admitted taking money for his fake evidence of crimes by Senator Joe McCarthy and his investigators (TIME, Jan. 30). In all, Hughes collected $10,800 from Joseph L. Rauh Jr., chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, and Editor Clayton Fritchey of the Democratic Digest, who testified that Hughes had fooled them roundly. But last week Hughes was acquitted in his Manhattan trial for perjury.

The jury voted not guilty on two counts that Hughes lied in telling a grand jury that Rauh and his friends had discussed giving money to Harvey Matusow, the professional witness and chronic liar who declared that he had not told the truth about Communist activities. On other counts—to the effect that Hughes was lying when he depicted Rauh not as a dupe but an accomplice in his unsuccessful frame-up of McCarthy—the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked."