Changes

{| cellpadding="1" <div style="float: right; border: 1px solid #8888aa; background: #f7f8ff; padding: 5px; font-size: 85%; margin: 0 15px 0 15px; text-align: center;">| <div style="background: #ccf; textfont-alignweight: centerbold; padding: 1px 3px 1px 3px;" | '''>This article is part of the'''<br/>'''[[Venona project|Venona]]'''<br/>'''series.'''</div>|-| style="text-align: center;"|[[Ware group]]<br/>|-| style="text-align: center;"|[[CPUSA#Secret_apparatusSecret apparatus|Secret apparatus]]<br/>|-| style="text-align: center;"|[[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]<br/>|-| style="text-align: center;"|[[LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee]]|-| style="text-align: center;"|[[Perlo group]]|-|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc"||-| style="text-align: center;"|<small>[http:br//en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Template:Ushistory&action=edit Edit this box]</small>|}'''John Abt''' was the Chief of Litigation, [[Agricultural Adjustment AdministrationPerlo group]] from 1933 to 1935, then assistant general counsel of the [[Works Progress Administration]] in 1935. Later he served as chief counsel on Senator Robert La Follette, Jr.'s [[LaFollette Committee]] from 1936 to 1937, then special assistant to the United States Attorney General, 1937 and 1938. In 1948 he worked with the Progressive Party of former Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace]]. In 1950-53, he unsuccessfully defended the [[Communist Party]] before the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]], which found that the party was required by law to register as an agent of a foreign power.<ref>83d Cong., 1st sess., Document No. 41Subversive Activities Control Board, [http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/herbertbrownellj1956unit/herbertbrownellj1956unit.pdf Herbert Brownell, Jr. Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner vs. Communist Party of the United States of America, Respondent: Report of the Board], April 23, 1953 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office: 1953), pp. 1, 132 (PDF pp. 9, 140)</refdiv>

'''John Abt ''' was also the Chief of Litigation, [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935, then assistant general counsel of the [[Works Progress Administration]] in 1935. Later he served as chief counsel on Senator Robert La Follette, Jr.'s [[LaFollette Committee]] from 1936 to 1937, then special assistant to the United States Attorney General, 1937 and 1938. In 1948 he worked with the Progressive Party of former Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace]]. Abt spent most of his career as chief counsel for the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Joan Cook, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/13/nyregion/john-j-abt-lawyer-dies-at-87-communist-party-counsel-in-us.html John J. Abt, Lawyer, Dies at 87]," ''The New York Times'', August 13, 1991</ref> In 1950–53, he unsuccessfully defended the Communist Party before the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]].<ref>The SACB found that the party was required by law to register as an agent of a foreign power. 83d Cong., 1st sess., Document No. 41, Subversive Activities Control Board, [http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/herbertbrownellj1956unit/herbertbrownellj1956unit.pdf Herbert Brownell, Jr. Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner vs. Communist Party of the United States of America, Respondent: Report of the Board], April 23, 1953 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office: 1953), pp. 1, 132 (PDF pp. 9, 140)</ref> He later argued unsuccessfully before the [[Supreme Court]] for the repeal of the [[McCarran Act]].<ref>Joan Cook, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/13/nyregion/john-j-abt-lawyer-dies-at-87-communist-party-counsel-in-us.html John J. Abt, Lawyer, Dies at 87]," ''The New York Times'', August 13, 1991</ref> Abt confessed to being a member of the [[Harold Ware|Ware group]], a group of <ref>Committee on Un-American governmental employees Activities, House of Representatives, United States Congress, [http://ia360609.us.archive.org/1/items/hearingsregardin1948unit/hearingsregardin1948unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the 1930United States Government], (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 643 (PDF p. 153). Cf. John J. Abt with Michael Myerson, 's also belonging to the '[https://books.google.com/books?id=9REaIPPh4k4C Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer]'' (University of Illinois Press, 1993) ISBN 0252020308, pp. 40-41</ref> an underground unit of [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) for Federal officials, which engaged in espionage and policy subversion. It was illegal for U.S. government employees to be members of the CPUSA, which advocated the violent removal overthrow of the [[United States government]]. After the groups group's founder, Harold Ware, was killed in an automobile collision in 1935, Abt married [[Jessica Smith]], Ware's widow.

In late 1943 [[Jacob Golos]], who headed the [[Communist Party of the United States]] [[CPUSA#Secret_apparatusSecret apparatus|secret apparatus]], was referred to a group of CPUSA members by General Secretary of the party, [[Earl Browder]]. This group of government employees had been engaged for sometime in espionage for Browder, and held regular clandestine meetings at John Abt's apartment. In early 1944, Golos sent [[Elizabeth Bentley]] to make contact with the group at Abt's apartment. In attendance were Abt, [[Victor Perlo]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Harry Magdoff]] and [[Edward Fitzgerald (Soviet spy)|Edward Fitzgerald]]. They discussed paying party dues to Bentley, the various types of information each would be able to deliver, and the type of information other members not in attendance would also be willing to deliver.

It is noted that during ==Angela Davis==In 1970, Marin Count Judge Harold Haley's head was blown off by a sawed-off shotgun in a hostage incident in which members of the [[Lee Harvey OswaldBlack Panthers]]attempted to free Davis' lover, Black Panther member [[George Jackson]]. Jackson's interrogation by younger brother took the Dallas Police on judge, the evening of 22 November 1963prosecutor, after his arrest for and three female jurors as hostages and armed the assassination defendants.<ref>{{cite book|last=Aptheker|first=Bettina|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of President Angela Davis|year=1997|publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref><ref name="Register-Guard">{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Search broadens for Angela Davis|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=August 17, 1970|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4BkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NuEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6482%2C3554926|accessdate=September 14, 2009}}</ref> [[John F. KennedyAngela Davis]]had purchased several of the firearms used in the attack, he requested <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/harvard-new-home-angela-davis-papers-180968191/|title=Angela Davis’ Archive Comes to Harvard|last1=Treviño|first1=Julissa|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine|date=16 February 2018|accessdate=7 February 2019}}</ref> including the services of Mrshotgun used to kill the judge. Abt<ref>{{cite news|url=https:  "I want that attorney in New York, Mr//www. Abtnytimes. I don't know him personally but I know about com/1972/04/18/archives/a case -shotgun-that he handled some years ago, where he represented -miss-davis-purchased-is-linked-to-the people who had violated -fatal-shooting.html|title=A Shotgun That Miss Davis Purchased Is Linked to the Fatal Shooting of Judge|last1=Caldwell|first1=Earl|work=[[Smith ActThe New York Times]]|date= April 18, [which made it illegal 1972|accessdate= February 7, 2019}}</ref> Davis was also found to teach or advocate the violent overthrow of the Uhave corresponded with Jackson.S<ref>{{cite book|authors=White, Bay, Martain|title=Freedom on My Mind|publisher=Bedford/St. government] . . . I donMartin't know him personallys|isbn=978-0-312-64884-8|page=725}}</ref> California considers "all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, but that is whether they directly commit the act constituting the attorney I wantoffense. . . . If I can't get himprincipals in any crime so committed", then I may get and a warrant for her arrest was issued. [[J. Edgar Hoover]] listed Davis on the [[American Civil Liberties UnionFBI]] 's Ten Most Wanted List; the third woman to send me an attorney" ever be listed<ref>{{cite web|title=Biography|work=See alsoDavis (Angela) Legal Defense Collection, 1970–1972|url=http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa|accessdate=*June 14, 2013}}</ref> behind Ma Barker and [[Alger HissBernardine Dohrn]]. She was apprehended and John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, represent her.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abt|first1=John|authorlink1=John Abt|last2=Myerson|first2=Michael|title=Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer|url=https://books.google.com/?id=9REaIPPh4k4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=978-0-252-02030-8}}</ref> Davis was eventually acquitted of any role in the plotting and execution of the crime.

* New York FBI report, 9 April 1944, John Jacob Abt FBI file 100-236194100–236194, serial 6.