denied the charges related to espionage. He provided no specifics about the sexual activity at issue and said the details of the charges were "too loathsome to mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen". The press conflated the charges in a similar way. For example, The New York Times report of Barkley's speech said that the FBI reported that "there is not the 'slightest foundation' for charges that Senator Walsh, 69-year-old chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, visited a 'house of degradation' in Brooklyn and was seen talking to Nazi agents there." Isolationist senators promptly denounced the charges as an attack on their political position. Senator Bennett Clark asserted that Morris Ernst, attorney for the New York Post, had contacted the White House trying to engage the administration to smear FDR's opposition. Senator Gerald Nye contended the incident represented a larger effort on the part of a "secret society" that for two years had been trying to discredit him and his fellow isolationists. The press used these Senate speeches to cover the affair at last. Their treatment varied in tone: The Boston Globe: Senator Walsh Story Denounced as Absolute Fabrication The New York Times: FBI Clears Walsh, Barkley Asserts New York Post: Whitewash for Walsh Time reported Barkley's speech exonerating Walsh and that the Post in reply had repeated its charges. It concluded its coverage: "The known facts made only one thing indisputable: either a serious scandal was being hushed up or a really diabolical libel had been perpetrated." Despite the attempts by the press to essentially "cover for Walsh" the FBI file on him confirmed both that the allegations were true and that at least some of the men he cohabited with were Nazi agents. However, the New York Post's publisher grew concerned about the newspaper's libel exposure, and hired a team led by Daniel Doran to conduct an investigation into Walsh's behavior and the Post's own reporting. Doran learned that Walsh had been in attendance at the Senate in Washington at the same times he was alleged to have been visiting the gay brothel. "Not a single item of legal evidence has been obtained," Doran reported back to the Post, which never amended or corrected its reporting. Final Senate years During the 1944 presidential race, with FDR seeking a fourth term, his running mate Harry S. Truman referred to Walsh as an "isolationist",