# Morgenthau Diaries, Volume 400: Treasury conference of May 1941 ("The Nucky Johnson case will be the last one")

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-28276692-morgenthau-diaries-vol-400-1941-05-20/

In a May 1941 Treasury conference, an aide reports Commissioner Helvering's view that letters in the Friedman case should wait, adding "The Nucky Johnson case will be the last one"; Foley agrees it is "the last one of the cases."

Volume 400 covers May 20 and 21, 1941. The stored image is page 25 of a conference transcript (page 37 of the NARA PDF). Thompson says: "I have a letter in the Friedman case. Mr. Helvering feels that we oughtn't to send those letters out until all of the case has been completed. The Nucky Johnson case will be the last one." Morgenthau answers, "But that is way, way off."

On the next page Foley says the cases "are being handled currently" and that "Nucky Johnson is the last one of the cases. I think maybe it would be wise to wait," adding, "If you do it now, it is an anti-climax. The fellow really was after Johnson." The transcript does not explain the Friedman case or the letters.

This is a short exchange in a long meeting on other business. It shows that the Treasury treated the Johnson prosecution as the last of a group of related cases; it does not state a charge or a result. The NARA catalog dates the volume; the conference date on these pages was not read separately.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Papers, Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (National Archives): https://catalog.archives.gov/medialive/92/2766/28276692/content/presidential-libraries/roosevelt/FDR-MORGEN/589213/md0538.pdf