 The convictions in the 1949 trial encouraged the Department of Justice to prepare for additional prosecutions of CPUSA leaders . Three months after the trial , in January 1950 , a representative of the Justice Department testified before Congress during appropriation hearings to justify an increase in funding to support Smith Act prosecutions . He testified that there were 21 @,@ 105 potential persons that could be indicted under the Smith Act , and that 12 @,@ 000 of those would be indicted if the Smith Act was upheld as constitutional . The FBI had compiled a list of 200 @,@ 000 persons in its Communist Index ; since the CPUSA had only around 32 @,@ 000 members in 1950 , the FBI explained the disparity by asserting that for every official Party member , there were ten persons who were loyal to the CPUSA and ready to carry out its orders . Seven months after the convictions , in May 1950 , Hoover gave a radio address in which he declared " communists have been and are today at work within the very gates of America .... Wherever they may be , they have in common one diabolic ambition : to weaken and to eventually destroy American democracy by stealth and cunning . " 
