Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy, novelist, and formerCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA)officer. As the subject of the 2003Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer wasleaked to and subsequently published byRobert Novak ofThe Washington Post. She described this period and the media firestorm that ensued as "mortifying, and I think I was in shock for a couple years".[1]
In the aftermath of the scandal,Richard Armitage in theU.S. Department of State was identified as one source of the information, andScooter Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice PresidentDick Cheney, was convicted of lying to investigators. After a failed appeal, PresidentGeorge W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence and in 2018, PresidentDonald Trump pardoned him. The individual responsible for leaking the information was never charged.
In collaboration with a ghostwriter, Plame wrote amemoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA. She has subsequently written and published at least two spy novels. A 2010 biographical feature film,Fair Game, was produced based on memoirs by her and her husband.
Valerie Elise Plame was born on August 13, 1963, onElmendorf Air Force Base, inAnchorage, Alaska, to Diane (née McClintock) and Samuel Plame III.[2][3] Plame says that her paternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of arabbi who emigrated fromUkraine; the original family surname was "Plamevotski". The rest of Plame's family was Protestant (the religion in which Plame was raised); she was unaware, until she was an adult, that her grandfather was Jewish.[4]
After graduating from college and moving toWashington, D.C., Plame worked at a clothing store while awaiting results of her application to theCIA.[7] She was accepted into the 1985–86 CIA officer training class.[10] Special CounselPatrick Fitzgerald affirmed that Plame "was a CIA officer from January 1, 2002, forward" and that "her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003."[11] Details about Plame's professional career are still classified, but it is documented that she worked for the CIA in anon-official cover (or NOC) capacity relating tocounter-proliferation.[12][10][13][14][15]
Plame served the CIA at times as a non-official cover, operating inAthens andBrussels.[16] While using her own name, "Valerie Plame", her assignments required posing in various professional roles in order to gather intelligence more effectively.[17][18][19] Two of her covers include serving as a junior consular officer in the early 1990s in Athens and then later as an energy analyst for the private company (founded in 1994) "Brewster Jennings & Associates," which the CIA later acknowledged was afront company for certain investigations.[20] A former senior diplomat in Athens remembered Plame in her dual role and also recalled that she served as one of the "control officers" coordinating the visit of PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush toGreece andTurkey in July 1991. The matter of whether she actually had covert status is disputed.[21][22] After thePersian Gulf War in 1991, the CIA sent her first to theLondon School of Economics and then theCollege of Europe, inBruges, formaster's degrees. After earning the second degree, she stayed on in Brussels, where she began her next assignment under cover as an "energy consultant" for Brewster-Jennings.[7] Beginning in 1997, Plame's primary assignment was shifted to theCIA headquarters inLangley, Virginia.[23]
During this time, part of her work concerned the determination of the use ofaluminum tubes purchased by Iraq.[24] CIA analysts prior to the Iraq invasion were quoted by theWhite House as believing that Iraq was trying to acquirenuclear weapons and that these aluminum tubes could be used in acentrifuge fornuclear enrichment.[25][26]David Corn andMichael Isikoff argued that theundercover work being done by Plame and her CIA colleagues in the Directorate of Central IntelligenceNonproliferation Center strongly contradicted such a claim.[24]
In his press conference on October 28, 2005, Special ProsecutorPatrick Fitzgerald explained the necessity of secrecy about hisgrand jury investigation that began in the fall of 2003—"when it was clear that Valerie Wilson's cover had been blown"—and the background and consequences of theindictment of then high-ranking Bush Administration officialScooter Libby as it pertained to her.[11]
Fitzgerald's subsequent replies to reporters' questions shed further light on the parameters of the leak investigation and what, as its lead prosecutor, bound by the rules of grand jury secrecy, he could and could not reveal legally at the time.[11] Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006, reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting withJudith Miller, reporter forThe New York Times, to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002classifiedNational Intelligence Estimate (NIE). According to Libby's testimony, "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE [to Judith Miller]."[31] According to his testimony, the information that Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller "was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassadorJoseph Wilson." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, then–National Security AdvisorCondoleezza Rice told reporters, "We don't want to try to get into kind of selective declassification" of the NIE, adding, "We're looking at what can be made available."[32] A "sanitized version" of the NIE in question was officially declassified on July 18, 2003, ten days after Libby's contact with Miller, and was presented at aWhite House background briefing onweapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.[33] The NIE contains no references to Valerie Plame or her CIA status, but the Special Counsel has suggested that White House actions were part of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson."[34] President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever had outed Plame.[32]
A court filing by Libby's defense team argued that Plame was not foremost in the minds of administration officials as they sought to rebut charges—made by her husband—that the White House manipulated intelligence to make a case for invasion. The filing indicated that Libby's lawyers did not intend to say that he was told to reveal Plame's identity.[35] The court filing also stated that "Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband toAfrica as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to callKarl Rove to the stand. Fitzgerald ultimately decided against pressing charges against Rove.[36]
On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and two counts of perjury. He was acquitted on one count of making false statements. He was not charged for revealing Plame's CIA status. His sentence included a $250,000 fine, 30 months in prison and two years of probation. On July 2, 2007, PresidentGeorge W. Bushcommuted Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine andprobation, calling the sentence "excessive."[37][38] In a subsequent press conference, on July 12, 2007, Bush noted, "...the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision."[39] The Wilsons responded to the commutation in statements posted by their legal counsel,Melanie Sloan, executive director ofCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and on their own legal support website. PresidentDonald Trump pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.[40]
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Rove, Libby, Vice PresidentDick Cheney, and other unnamed senior White House officials (to whom they later addedRichard Armitage)[41] for their alleged role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status.[42] JudgeJohn D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007;[43][44][45][46] the Wilsons appealed. On August 12, 2008, in a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the dismissal.[47][48]Melanie Sloan, ofCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which represents the Wilsons, said "the group will request the full D.C. Circuit to review the case and appeal to theU.S. Supreme Court."[47][49] Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. On the current justice department position, Sloan stated: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm that Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."[50]
On March 8, 2007, two days after the verdict in theLibby trial, CongressmanHenry Waxman, chair of theUnited States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, announced that his committee would ask Plame to testify on March 16, in an effort by his committee to look into "whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding Plame's identity."[52][53]
On March 16, 2007, at these hearings about the disclosure, Waxman read a statement about Plame's CIA career that had been cleared byCIA director Gen.Michael V. Hayden and the CIA, stating that she was undercover and that her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure underExecutive Order 12958.
Subsequent reports in various news accounts focused on the following parts of her testimony:
"My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior government officials in the White House and state department"; this abuse occurred for "purely political reasons."[54]
After her identity was exposed by officials in the Bush administration, she had to leave the CIA: "I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained."[55]
She did not select her husband for a CIA fact-finding trip toNiger, but an officer senior to her selected him and told her to ask her husband if he would consider it: "I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was nonepotism involved. I did not have the authority [...]."[55]
Plame's husband Joseph Wilson announced on March 6, 2007, that the couple had "signed a deal withWarner Bros ofHollywood to offer their consulting services—or maybe more—in the making of the forthcoming movie about the Libby trial," their lives and the CIA leak scandal.[56] The feature film, a co-production between Weed Road'sAkiva Goldsman andJerry and Janet Zucker ofZucker Productions with a screenplay byJez andJohn-Henry Butterworth to be based in part on Valerie Wilson'smemoirFair Game (contingent on CIA clearances) originally scheduled for release in August 2007, but ultimately published on October 22, 2007.[57]
In May 2006,The New York Times reported that Valerie Wilson agreed to a $2.5 million book deal withCrown Publishing Group, a division ofRandom House. Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, told the Times that the book would be her "first airing of her actual role in the American intelligence community, as well as the prominence of her role in the lead-up to the war."[58] Subsequently, theNew York Times reported that the book deal fell through and that Plame was in exclusive negotiations withSimon & Schuster.[58] Ultimately, Simon and Schuster publicly confirmed the book deal, though not the financial terms and, at first, no set publication date.[24][59]
Valerie Plame and journalistNina Burleigh, October 2016
On May 31, 2007, various news media reported that Simon and Schuster and Valerie Wilson were suingJ. Michael McConnell,Director of National Intelligence, andMichael V. Hayden,Director of the CIA, arguing that the CIA "is unconstitutionally interfering with the publication of her memoir,Fair Game, ... set to be published in October [2007], by not allowing Plame to mention the dates that she served in the CIA."[60][61] Judge Barbara S. Jones, of theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York, inManhattan, interpreted the issue in favor of the CIA. Therefore, the ruling stated that Plame would not be able to describe in her memoir the precise dates she had worked for the CIA. In 2009, the federal court of appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Jones's ruling.
On October 31, 2007, in an interview withCharlie Rose broadcast onThe Charlie Rose Show, Valerie Wilson discussed many aspects relating to her memoir: theCIA leak grand jury investigation;United States v. Libby, the civil suit which she and her husband were at the time still pursuing against Libby, Cheney, Rove, and Armitage; and other matters presented in her memoir relating to her covert work with the CIA.[62]
The film,Fair Game, was released November 5, 2010, starringNaomi Watts andSean Penn. It is based on two books, one written by Plame, and the other by her husband.[63] TheWashington Post editorial page, led by editor Fred Hiatt, a vocal supporter of the Iraq War,[64] who blamed Wilson for Plame's identity being leaked,[65] described the movie as being "full of distortions—not to mention outright inventions",[66] while news reporters Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby atThe Washington Post disagreed, saying "The movie holds up as a thoroughly researched and essentially accurate account—albeit with caveats".[67]
In May 2011, it was announced that Plame would write a series of spy novels with mystery writer Sarah Lovett. The first book in the series, titledBlowback, was released on October 1, 2013, by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of thePenguin Group.[68]
In August 2017, Plame set up aGoFundMe fundraising page in an attempt to buy a majority interest inTwitter and kick U.S. PresidentDonald Trump off the network.[69][70][71] She launched her campaign because she believes that Donald Trump 'emboldens white supremacists' and encourages 'violence against journalists'.[72]
Titled "Let's #BuyTwitter and #BanTrump", she set the campaign's goal to $1 billion; her campaign raised $88,000.[72]
In September 2017, Plame tweeted a link to an article fromThe Unz Review website posted byPhilip Giraldi, titled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars", repeating the title of the article in her tweet.[73][74] The article said that certain "American Jews who lack any shred of integrity" should be given a special label when appearing on television: "kind-of-like a warning label on a bottle of rat poison."[74] Amid criticism, Plame first defended her posts, replying on Twitter that "Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish."[74][75] She also said that people should "read the entire article" without "biases", writing in defense of herself after the initial backlash:[76] "read the entire article, just for a moment, to put aside your biases and think clearly."[77]
Within two hours, she deleted her initial post and apologized, tweeting "OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest. I missed gross undercurrents to this article & didn't do my homework on the platform this piece came from. Now that I see it, it's obvious. Apologies all. There is so much there that's problematic AF and I should have recognized it sooner. Thank you for pushing me to look again. I'm not perfect and make mistakes. This was a doozy. All I can do is admit them, try to be better, and read more thoroughly next time, Ugh."[78]Ramesh Ponnuru and Caleb Ecarma have argued that the incident followed a pattern of her posting antisemitic content, and of Plame making jokes about "rich Jews".[79][76] She had tweeted at least eight articles from the same website before,[80] in which she previously retweeted links toconspiracy theories of 'dancing Israelis' being behind the9/11 attacks.[81]
After graduating from Penn State in 1985, Plame married Todd Sesler; the marriage ended in divorce in 1989.[7] In 1997, while working for theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA), Plame met former AmbassadorJoseph C. Wilson.[86][6][87] They were married on April 3, 1998.[88] At the time they met, Wilson related in his memoir, he wasseparated from his second wife Jacqueline. Theydivorced after 12 years of marriage so that he could marry Plame.[86] They had two children, twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000. Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017.[89] Wilson died in 2019. Plame married Dr.Joseph Shepard, President ofWestern New Mexico University, in 2020.
Prior to the disclosure of her CIA job, the family lived inthe Palisades, Washington, D.C.[7] After she resigned from the CIA following the disclosure of her CIA position, in January 2006, the family moved toSanta Fe, New Mexico,[90][10] where Plame served as a consultant to theSanta Fe Institute until 2016. In a 2011 interview, Plame said she and Wilson had received threats while living in the D.C. metro area, and that the New Mexico location was calm.[91]
In December 2024 it was reported that Plame's husband was resigning his post as WNMU president in exchange for a severance package of nearly $2 million, as he and regents of the university were implicated in charges of wasteful spending. "Plame was not a WNMU employee, she was issued a university credit card, which she used to buy" thousands of dollars of furniture and home and office accessories.[93]
^Larry C. Johnson,"The Big Lie about Valerie Plame" (Archived January 25, 2008, at theWayback Machine), tpmcafe.com (Special Guest blog), June 13, 2005, accessed July 15, 2006. (Johnson is "a former CIA analyst who was in Plame's officer training class in 1985–86" and Deputy Director for Special Operations, Transportation Security, and Anti-Terrorism Assistance in the U.S. State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism until October 1993.)
^Attachment A:Archived October 3, 2006, at theWayback Machine Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, July 1 Through 31 December 200[2], Office of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (ODCI),CIA, Dec. 2002, accessed October 27, 2006.
^Unclassified Report to Congress: (Archived September 30, 2006, at theWayback Machine) on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, January 1 Through June 30, 2002, Office of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (ODCI),CIA, June 2002, accessed October 27, 2006.
^Moran, Christopher (2015).Company Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA. New York City: Thomas Dunne Books. pp. 266–7.ISBN978-1250047137.The fallout was huge. Novak's column effectively ended Plame's CIA career. With her cover blown, she eventually resigned in December 2005
^abJoseph C. Wilson,The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed my Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir (2004; New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005), p. 240–242. (Additional page references appear within parentheses in the text.)
Wheeler, Marcy.Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy. Berkeley: Vaster Books (Dist. by Publishers Group West), 2007.ISBN978-0-9791761-0-4.
