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{{Short description|American writer, spy novelist and former CIA officer (born 1963)}}
:''For more detail on the political scandal and its consequences, see ]''
{{Redirect|Valerie Flame|the ''Childrens Hospital'' character|Childrens Hospital#Cast and characters{{!}}''Childrens Hospital''#Cast and characters}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Valerie Plame
| image = Valerie plame wilson 2014.jpg
| caption = Plame in 2014
| birth_name = Valerie Elise Plame
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|8|13}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| party = ]
| other_names = Valerie Plame Wilson
| occupation = {{Plain list|
* ]
* ] (1985–2006)
* ]
}}
| education = {{Plain list|
* ] (])
* ] (])
* ] (])
}}
| spouse = {{Plain list|
* {{marriage|Todd Sesler|1987|1989|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|]|1998|2017|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Joseph Shepard|2020}}
}}
| children = 2
| website = {{url|valerieplame.com}}
}}


'''Valerie Elise Plame''' (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy, novelist, and former ] (CIA) ]. As the subject of the 2003 ], also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer was ] to and subsequently published by ] of '']''. She described this period and the media firestorm that ensued as "mortifying, and I think I was in shock for a couple years".<ref name="EyewitnessHistory">], </ref>
]
'''Valerie E. Wilson''' (born '''Valerie Elise Plame''' ] ], in ], ]) is a former ] ] officer who once held ] (NOC) status. Her identity was leaked publicly in a syndicated newspaper column by ] on July 14, 2003, as the wife of former Ambassador ] and a CIA "operative" named Valerie Plame. Her legal name, however, has been Valerie Wilson since her marriage to Ambassador Wilson in 1998.<ref>], ," '']'' ] ]:A21. In the article, Novak states: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." While legally named "Valerie Wilson," she is known in the media by her maiden name, "Valerie Plame." Frequently, the press refers to Valerie Wilson as "Valerie Plame" or "Plame," while it uses "Wilson" in referring to her husband, ]. '']'' reported on July 5, 2005 that Valerie Wilson's "husband said she has used her married name both at work and in her personal life since their 1998 marriage." Her recent political campaign contributions are actually listed by ''Newsmeat'' in the name "Valerie E. Wilson" in the search for Ambassador Wilson told ]'s '']'' on July 14, 2005, "My wife's name is Wilson, it's Mrs. Joseph Wilson. It is Valerie Wilson." In his July 14, 2003 column exposing the identity of Mrs. Wilson as a "CIA operative," Robert Novak published her maiden name, "Plame," which he claims he retrieved easily from the entry for Joseph Wilson in '']'', in consulting that publication while he was searching for biographical information about Joseph Wilson in an effort to identify the name of his wife. Ambassador Wilson's biography did ''not'', however, include anything about his wife's employer. See report about how, on ] '']'' July 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006.</ref> Ambassador Wilson's Op-Ed critical of the ] published in the '']'' ("What I Didn't Find in Africa") on July 6, 2003, Robert Novak's response to it in his column the next week (July 14), identifying Wilson's wife Valerie Plame as a "CIA operative," and the possible sources of the leaks leading to Novak's disclosure have become subjects of extended controversy. Vice President ]'s former ] ] has been convicted of four felony counts brought by the ] ] and the Wilsons have filed a ] (]) against Libby and Cheney, presidential advisor ], and former ] ].


In the aftermath of the scandal, ] in the ] was identified as one source of the information, and ], Chief of Staff to Vice President ], was convicted of lying to investigators. After a failed appeal, President ] commuted Libby's sentence and in 2018, President ] pardoned him. The individual responsible for leaking the information was never charged.
In late 2003 the political controversy, commonly referred to as the ], the "Plame scandal," "Plame]," or the "CIA leak scandal", resulted in the ] referring the ] investigation to the ], headed by ] ], who convened a ] to probe alleged violations of criminal statutes, including the ] of 1982.


In collaboration with a ghostwriter, Plame wrote a ] 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, '']'', was produced based on memoirs by her and her husband.
Special Counsel Fitzgerald's investigation has not determined whether the public exposure of Plame's name violated any criminal statutes. No one has been charged specifically for leaking Plame's identity. "Scooter" Libby, ] ]'s Chief of Staff, however, was charged with covering up facts about his role pertaining to the leaks. The five-count ] of Libby included obstruction of justice (one count), making false statements (two counts), and perjury (two counts). On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted of four of the five counts. He was acquitted on one count of making false statements. ] Novak has yet to be charged for his alleged involvement.


Plame was an unsuccessful candidate for ] in 2020, placing second behind ] in the ].
On ] ], former ] ], Novak's "primary source" for the disclosure of the identity of Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, publicly identified himself, after seeking permission to do so from Special Counsel Fitzgerald, to whom he had identified himself as the likely person at the start of the investigation.<ref name=Martin>Interview with David Martin of ], ", '']'' ] ].</ref> The Wilsons' civil action, which includes initially ], ], and ], has been amended to include Armitage.<ref name=CBSNews> '']'' ] ], accessed ] ]; includes PDF. Cf. at ''FindLaw.com''.</ref>


== Personal History == == Early life and education ==
Valerie Elise Plame was born on August 13, 1963, on ], in ], to Diane (née McClintock) and Samuel Plame III.<ref name=APbio>], ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116183811/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001392451 |date=January 16, 2009 }}), reposted in '']'', May 30, 2005, accessed August 12, 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Valerie Plame|date=2007|title=Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJekd8LUmOUC&pg=PA314|publisher=Simon & Schuster|page=314|isbn=9781416583363}}</ref> Plame says that her paternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of a ] who emigrated from ]; 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.<ref>Wilson, pp. 173–174.</ref>


She graduated in 1981 from ], in ],<ref name=Spivak>{{cite news|first=Rachel|last=Spivak|url=http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2003/10/10-09-03tdc/10-09-03dnews-08.asp|title=CIA Agent Linked to Collegian|newspaper=The Daily Collegian Online|date=October 9, 2003|accessdate= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525091307/http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2003/10/10-09-03tdc/10-09-03dnews-08.asp |archive-date=May 25, 2011 }}</ref><ref name=Goffard>{{cite news|first=Christopher|last=Goffard|authorlink=Christopher Goffard|url=http://www.tampabay.com/SearchForwardServlet.do?articleId=258941|title=Valerie Plame: Smart, Private, 'Waltons' Fan|newspaper=]|via=tampabay.com|date=August 8, 2005|accessdate=June 8, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183033/http://www.tampabay.com/SearchForwardServlet.do?articleId=258941 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 }}</ref> and in 1985 from ], with a ] in advertising.<ref name=VanityFair/> While attending Penn State, she joined ] ]<ref name=FG>"]".</ref> and worked for the business division of the '']'' ].<ref name=VanityFair>{{cite magazine | first = Vicky | last = Ward | url = https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/01/plame200401?printable=true&currentPage=all | title = Double Exposure | magazine = ] | date = January 2004 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080406022724/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/01/plame200401?printable=true&currentPage=all | archive-date = April 6, 2008 }} </ref><ref name="forward.com"> March 29, 2019, By Aiden Pink, The Forward</ref>


=== Education ===
Plame graduated in 1985 from ] with a BA in Advertising. She also attended the ], UK, and the ], an international-relations school in ], in 1995. Soon after graduation from college, she started working for the ] in Washington D.C. During her time at Penn State, she had worked on the business side of PSU's student newspaper, ''].'' According to an article in the ''Collegian'' of ] ], before college, she attended Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, ], graduating in 1981.<ref name=VanityFair>{{cite news | url=http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/01/plame200401?printable=true&currentPage=all | title=Double Exposure | author=Vicky Ward | publisher=Vanity Fair | date=January 2004 | accessdate=2007-02-16}}</ref>

=== Marriage and family ===
{{See also|Joseph C. Wilson}}

After Plame graduated from Penn State, she moved to Washington, D.C., and married her college boyfriend. She worked at a clothing store, biding her time, waiting for her acceptance from the CIA. She and her then husband later divorced.

On April 3 1998, Plame married former Ambassador ]. Plame met Wilson at a convention in ], in early 1995 or 1997, while working for ]. Unable to reveal her ] role to him when they first met, she told Wilson initially that she was an energy trader in Brussels <ref name=Goffard>Christopher Goffard, ''], August 8 2005, accessed July 15 2006</ref>. After they began dating and became serious about each other, however, Plame revealed her employment with the CIA to Wilson<ref>], ''The Politics and Truth'' 240-45.</ref>.

At the time that they met, Wilson relates in his memoir, he was ] from his second wife Jacqueline, a former ] diplomat; they divorced after twelve years of marriage so that he could marry Valerie Plame. His divorce from Jacqueline, which had been "delayed because I was never in one place long enough to complete the process," though he and she had already been living separate lives since the mid-90s (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 242).

Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson are the parents of twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana born in January 2000. Valerie suffered from ] after their birth , and became a spokesperson for the disease.

Wilson is also the father of another set of twins ( also a boy and a girl ), from his first marriage to his "college sweetheart" Susan Dale Otchis (27 Apr 1973 - 1986): Sabrina Cecile and Joseph Charles, who were born in 1975{{Fact|date=March 2007}}.

The family currently lives in the Palisades, an affluent neighborhood of ], on the fringe of Georgetown. In winter, when the trees have no leaves, the back of their house has a stunning view of the Washington Monument <ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102801172_pf.html</ref> <ref>http://www.jimgilliam.com/2004/01/vanity_fairs_profile_on_joseph_wilson_and_valerie_plame.php</ref>.


==Career== ==Career==
]'', at ], in ], on December 4, 2007.]]
Due to the nature of her clandestine work for the CIA, details about Plame's professional career are still classified. While undercover, she described herself as an "energy analyst" for the private company "]", which the CIA later acknowledged was a ] for certain investigations. According to '']'' reporters Ross Kerber and Bryan Bender, who searched for "Brewster Jennings" in Dunn & Bradstreet, the New Jersey operator of commercial databases, "Brewster Jennings" first entered D&B records on ] ]; but, when contacted directly, D&B personnel would not discuss the source of the filing. Although D&B records list the company as a "legal services office," located at 101 Arch Street, Boston, Massachusetts, given the CIA's later acknowledgment and the dead end reached by Kerber and Bender in their attempts to learn more about it, one does doubt that Plame actually "worked" for it.<ref name=KerberBender>Ross Kerber and Bryan Bender, '']'', ] ], accessed ] ].</ref>


After graduating from college and moving to ], Plame worked at a clothing store while awaiting results of her application to the ].<ref name=VanityFair/> She was accepted into the 1985–86 CIA officer training class.<ref name="LiptakAug">{{cite news|first=Adam|last=Liptak|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/washington/03plame.html |title=Judge Backs C.I.A. in Suit On Memoir|newspaper=]|date=August 3, 2007|access-date=March 23, 2008}}</ref> Special Counsel ] 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."<ref name=Fitzgeraldpress>, '']'', October 28, 2005, accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> Details about Plame's professional career are still classified, but it is documented that she worked for the CIA in a ] capacity relating to ].<ref>{{cite web |first1=Muriel |last1=Kane |first2=Dave |last2=Edwards |url=http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CBS_confirms_2006_Raw_Story_scoop_1020.html|title=CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran|website=]|date=October 20, 2007|access-date=October 22, 2007|archive-date=September 14, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914224116/http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CBS_confirms_2006_Raw_Story_scoop_1020.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=LiptakAug/><ref name=Fitzgeraldaffidavit>], Placed in Public File Pursuant to Opinion Released February 3, 2006", online posting, '']'', February 3, 2006: 28 n. 15, accessed August 7, 2007.</ref><ref name=ExhibitA>{{cite web|url= http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/files/sentencing_memo_exhibits.pdf |title=Unclassified Summary of Valerie Wilson's CIA Employment and Cover History }}&nbsp;{{small|(2.63&nbsp;])}}, "Exhibit A" in sentencing memorandum exhibits, '']'', online posting of public document, ''The Next Hurrah'' (blog), May 26, 2007: 2–3.</ref><ref name=Salon>{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2007/05/30/plame_46/|title=Valerie Plame, Covert After All|work=]|date=May 30, 2007|access-date=August 12, 2007}}</ref>
Valerie Plame was identified as a ] by Elisabeth Bumiller, in an article published in the '']'' on ] 2003:
<blockquote>But within the C.I.A., the exposure of Ms. Plame is now considered an even greater instance of treachery. Ms. Plame, a specialist in non-conventional weapons who worked overseas, had "nonofficial cover", and was what in C.I.A. parlance is called a NOC, the most difficult kind of false identity for the agency to create. While most undercover agency officers disguise their real profession by pretending to be American embassy diplomats or other United States government employees, Ms. Plame passed herself off as a private energy expert. Intelligence experts said that NOCs have especially dangerous jobs.<ref name=Bumiller>Elisabeth Bumiller, '']'' ] ]. (TimesSelect subscription required for access online.)</ref></blockquote>


Plame served the CIA at times as a non-official cover, operating in ] and ].<ref name=Bumiller>{{cite news|first=Elisabeth|last=Bumiller|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E7D8123CF936A35753C1A9659C8B63 |title=Debating a Leak: The Director: C.I.A. Chief Is Caught in Middle by Leak Inquiry|newspaper=]|date=October 5, 2003}}</ref> While using her own name, "Valerie Plame", her assignments required posing in various professional roles in order to gather intelligence more effectively.<ref name=JohnsonBigLie>], ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125151623/http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340 |date=January 25, 2008 }}), 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.)</ref><ref name=DuffyBurger>{{cite magazine|first1=Michael|last1=Duffy|first2=Timothy J. |last2=Burger|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,524486-1,00.html|title=NOC. Who's There? A Special Kind of Agent|magazine=]|date=October 19, 2003|accessdate=September 25, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022174929/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,524486-1,00.html|archive-date=October 22, 2007}}</ref><ref name=LeibyandPriest>{{cite news|first1=Richard|last1=Leiby|first2=Dana|last2=Priest|authorlink2=Dana Priest|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58650-2003Oct7/ |title=The Spy Next Door: Valerie Wilson, Ideal Mom, Was Also the Ideal Cover|newspaper=]|date=October 8, 2003|page=A01|access-date=October 31, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810134144/https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58650-2003Oct7/?language=printer|archive-date=August 10, 2018}}</ref> 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) "]," which the CIA later acknowledged was a ] for certain investigations.<ref name=Kuhn>{{cite web|first=Carolyn|last=Kuhn|url=http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/137645/index.php|title=Libby Trial: Plame, Brewster, Ellmann, Edwards, Dennehy, Jennings: Not Secret? |publisher=dc.indymedia.org|date=January 31, 2007|accessdate=May 5, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022162935/http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/137645/index.php|archive-date=October 22, 2007}}</ref> 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 President ] to ] and ] in July 1991. The matter of whether she actually had covert status is disputed.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116033614/http://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/29/novak.cia/ |date=November 16, 2017 }}. Wednesday, October 1, 2003, CNN</ref><ref name=Crewdson>{{cite news|first=John|last=Crewdson|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060311plame-story,1,2504459.story?|title=Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled|newspaper=]|date=March 11, 2006|accessdate=September 25, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115021048/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060311plame-story,1,2504459.story |archive-date=November 15, 2007 }}</ref> After the ] War in 1991, the CIA sent her first to the ] and then the ], in ], for ]s. 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.<ref name=VanityFair/> Beginning in 1997, Plame's primary assignment was shifted to the ] in ].<ref name=Jones>{{cite book|first=Ishmael|last=Jones|title=The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture|publisher=]|date=2008|page=255|asin=B003XU7IF4}}</ref>
In "NOC, NOC. Who's There? A Special Kind of Agent", an article published in the ] ], issue of '']'' magazine, Michael Duffy and Timothy J. Burger highlight that "The unmasking of Valerie Plame sheds light on the shadowy world of NOCs, spies with nonofficial cover", relating:
<blockquote>Plame worked as a spy internationally in more than one role. Fred Rustmann, a former CIA official who put in 24 years as a spymaster and was Plame's boss for a few years, says Plame worked under official cover in Europe in the early 1990s — say, as a U.S. embassy attache — before switching to nonofficial cover a few years later. Mostly Plame posed as a business analyst or a student in what Rustmann describes as a "nice European city." Plame was never a so-called ''deep-cover'' NOC, he said, meaning the agency did not create a complex cover story about her education, background, job, personal life and even hobbies and habits that would stand up to intense scrutiny by foreign governments. " are on corporate rolls, and if anybody calls the corporation, the secretary says, 'Yeah, he works for us,'" says Rustmann. "The degree of backstopping to a NOC's cover is a very good indication of how deep that cover really is." . . . . Though Plame's cover is now blown, it probably began to unravel years ago when Wilson first asked her out. Rustmann describes Plame as an "exceptional officer" but says her ability to remain under cover was jeopardized by her marriage in 1998 to the higher-profile American diplomat.<ref name=DuffyBurger>Michael Duffy and Timothy J. Burger, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


During this time, part of her work concerned the determination of the use of ] purchased by Iraq.<ref name=Corn>David Corn, , '']'' (web only), September 6, 2006. Citing information in the book ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'', co-written by Corn and ].</ref> CIA analysts prior to the Iraq invasion were quoted by the ] as believing that Iraq was trying to acquire ] and that these aluminum tubes could be used in a ] for ].<ref name=CIAreport1>'' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003122934/https://www.odci.gov/cia/reports/721_reports/july_dec2002.htm#4 |date=October 3, 2006 }} 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'', Office of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (ODCI), ], Dec. 2002, accessed October 27, 2006.</ref><ref name=CIAreport2>'' ({{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930043217/https://www.odci.gov/cia/reports/721_reports/jan_jun2002.html |date=September 30, 2006 }}) 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), ], June 2002, accessed October 27, 2006.</ref> ] and ] argued that the ] work being done by Plame and her CIA colleagues in the Directorate of Central Intelligence ] Center strongly contradicted such a claim.<ref name=Corn/>
Similarly, John Crewdson, senior correspondent for the '']'', in an article published on ] 2006, relies on an internet-based address directory search to locate Plame's publicly-known addresses to report that, in the early 1990s, Valerie Plame's address was listed as "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."<ref name=Crewdson>John Crewdson, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> He adds that a former senior American diplomat in Athens who remembered Plame told the ''Tribune'' that "he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA." According to Crewdson, the former senior diplomat also recalled "that she served as one of the 'control officers' coordinating the visit of President George H.W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991." The ''Tribune'' also reported that "after the completion of her Athens tour, the CIA reportedly sent Plame to study in Europe." Unidentified CIA veterans reportedly told Crewdson that operatives who work in an embassy would have "diplomatic cover" and that their identities would be known to both "friendly and opposition intelligence services alike":
<blockquote>But several CIA veterans questioned how someone with an embassy background could have successfully passed herself off as a private-sector consultant with no government connections. Genuine NOCs, a CIA veteran said, "never use an official address. If she had address, her whole cover's completely phony. I used to run NOCs. I was in an embassy. I'd go out and meet them, clandestine meetings. I'd pay them cash to run assets or take trips. I'd give them a big bundle of cash. But they could never use an embassy address, ever." Another CIA veteran with 20 years of service agreed that "the key is the address. That is completely unacceptable for an NOC. She wasn't an NOC, period." After Plame was transferred back to CIA headquarters in the mid-1990s, she continued to pass herself off as a private energy consultant. But the first CIA veteran noted: "You never let a true NOC go into an official facility. You don't drive into headquarters with your car, ever." A senior U.S. intelligence official, who like the others quoted in this article spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that Plame "may not be alone in that category, so I don't want to suggest she was the only one. But it would be a fair assumption that a true-blue NOC is not someone who has a headquarters job at any point or an embassy job at any point."<ref name=Crewdson>John Crewdson, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


=== "Plamegate" ===
According to Vicky Ward, in her '']'' article on the Wilsons, "Double Exposure," while in Athens, Valerie Plame "had what is known as 'State Department cover.' The only lie Plame had to tell her friends then was that the State Department was her only boss. After the Gulf War she was sent to the London School of Economics, and from there to the College of Europe, an international-relations school in Bruges. She stayed on in Brussels, telling friends she was working for an energy consulting firm, Brewster-Jennings."<ref name=VanityFair/>
{{Main|Plame affair|Plame affair grand jury investigation|Plame affair criminal investigation}}


On July 14, 2003, ], a journalist for '']'', used information obtained from ], ], and ], to reveal Plame's identity as a CIA operative in his column.<ref name=Seidman>{{cite web|first=Joel|last=Seidman|work=]|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18924679|title=Plame Was 'covert' Agent at Time of Name Leak: Newly Released Unclassified Document Details CIA Employment|date=May 29, 2007|access-date=August 10, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Moran|title=Company Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA|publisher=Thomas Dunne Books|location=New York City|date=2015|pages=266–7|isbn=978-1250047137|quote=The fallout was huge. Novak's column effectively ended Plame's CIA career. With her cover blown, she eventually resigned in December 2005}}</ref> Legal documents published in the course of the ], '']'', and ] investigations, established her classified employment as a ] officer for the CIA at the time when Novak's column was published in July 2003.<ref name=Seidman/><ref name=Waxmanstmt>{{cite web |url= http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316104030-43341.pdf |title= Statement of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090325085424/http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316104030-43341.pdf |archive-date= March 25, 2009 }}&nbsp;{{small|(156&nbsp;])}}, "Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing on Disclosure of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's ldentity and White House Procedures for Safeguarding Classified Information", online posting, ], ''oversight.house.gov'', March 16, 2007: 2, accessed March 19, 2007</ref><ref name=oversightdocs> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826111916/http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?Issue=Disclosure+of+CIA+Agent+Identity |date=August 26, 2009 }} and {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419075417/http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1205 |date=April 19, 2007 }} Hearing Examines Exposure of Covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's Identity", ] (Oversight Committee), March 16, 2007, accessed July 10, 2007. (Hyperlinks in menu, including streaming video of hearing; box with "Documents and Links", featuring documents chart {{cite web |url= http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316173308-19288.pdf |title= Disclosures of Valerie Plame Wilson's Classified CIA Employment |access-date= February 8, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090826112007/http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070316173308-19288.pdf |archive-date= August 26, 2009 |url-status=dead }}&nbsp;{{small|(35.9&nbsp;])}}.)</ref>
] is "a former CIA analyst who was in Plame's officer training class in 1985-86," and left the Agency in 1989.<ref name=LeibyandPriest>Richard Leiby and ], Valerie Wilson, Ideal Mom, Was Also the Ideal Cover," '']'', ], ]: A01, accessed ], ].</ref> He served as 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. On ] 2005, posting as an invited "Special guest" in a blog called ''tmpcafe.com'', Johnson stated that, prior to Novak's column of ] 2003, Valerie Plame was indeed a "]" (NOC) operative:<blockquote>Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. . . . Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.<br>
A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a ] officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.<br>
The lies by people like ], Representative ], and ] insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until ] betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.<ref name=JohnsonBigLie>Larry Johnson, ''tpmcafe.com'' (Special Guest blog) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote> Joined by ten other CIA officials, on ], ], Johnson presented a formal statement to the U.S. Congressional investigation into this matter, addressing the consequences of disclosing Plame's identity in detail.<ref name=officialhearingtranscript>Official transcript of the released by the office of Senator Dorgan, of the "Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, House Government Reform Committee Minority" hearing of "Friday, July 22, 2005, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon, 138 Dirksen Senate Office Building," entitled "A Special Joint Oversight Hearing on the National Security Consequences of Disclosing the Identity of a Covert Intelligence Officer" (Hearing Transcript); see "Additional materials" for their {{PDFlink||69.3&nbsp;]<!-- application/pdf, 71047 bytes -->}}, "An Open Statement to the Leaders of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate," dated ], ]:<blockquote>The Honorable Dennis Hastert, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Dr. William Frist, Majority Leader of the Senate
The Honorable Harry Reid, Minority Leader of the Senate<br>
We, the undersigned former U.S. intelligence officers are concerned with the tone and substance of the public debate over the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, to syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other members of the media, which exposed her status as an undercover CIA officer. The disclosure of Ms. Plame’s name was a shameful event in American history and, in our professional judgment, may have damaged U.S. national security and poses a threat to the ability of U.S. intelligence gathering using human sources. Any breach of the code of confidentiality and cover weakens the overall fabric of intelligence, and, directly or indirectly, jeopardizes the work and safety of intelligence workers and their sources. . . .<br>
These comments reveal an astonishing ignorance of the intelligence community and the role of cover. The fact is that there are thousands of U.S. intelligence officers who “work at a desk” in the Washington, D.C. area every day who are undercover. Some have official cover, and some have non-official cover. Both classes of cover must and should be protected.<br>
While we are pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting an investigation and that the U.S. Attorney General has recused himself, we believe that the partisan attacks against Valerie Plame are sending a deeply discouraging message to the men and women who have agreed to work undercover for their nation’s security.<br>
We are not lawyers and are not qualified to determine whether the leakers technically violated the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. However, we are confident that Valerie Plame was working in a cover status and that our nation’s leaders, regardless of political party, have a duty to protect all intelligence officers. We believe it is appropriate for the President to move proactively to dismiss from office or administratively punish any official who
participated in any way in revealing Valerie Plame's status. Such an act by the President would send an unambiguous message that leaks of this nature will not be tolerated and would be consistent with his duties as the Commander-in-Chief.<br>
We also believe it is important that Congress speak with one non-partisan voice on this issue. Intelligence officers should not be used as political footballs. In the case of Valerie Plame, she still works for the CIA and is not in a position to publicly defend her reputation and honor. We stand in her stead and ask that Republicans and Democrats honor her service to her
country and stop the campaign of disparagement and innuendo aimed at discrediting Mrs. Wilson and her husband.</ref></blockquote>


In his press conference on October 28, 2005, Special Prosecutor ] explained the necessity of secrecy about his ] 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 the ] of then high-ranking Bush Administration official ] as it pertained to her.<ref name="Fitzgeraldpress" />
Special Counsel Fitzgerald affirmed further that Plame served in a classified position as a CIA officer and the necessity for protecting such classified information during his ], 2005 press conference:
<blockquote>Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community. Valerie Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life. The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well-known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security. Valerie Wilson's cover was blown in July 2003. The first sign of that cover being blown was when Mr. Novak published a column on July 14th, 2003.<ref name=Fitzgeraldpress> '']'', ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


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.<ref name="Fitzgeraldpress" /> Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006, reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting with ], reporter for '']'', to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002 ] ] (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 ."<ref name=TheSmokingGun>{{cite web|url= http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/pdf/libbyplame.pdf |title=U.S. vs. I. Lewis Libby |date=November 19, 2010 }}&nbsp;{{small|(200&nbsp;])}}, as posted online in '']'' (blog), April 5, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> 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 ambassador ]." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, then–] ] 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."<ref name=IsikoffNewsweek>Michael Isikoff, '']'', April 4, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> 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 a ] background briefing on ] (WMD) in Iraq.<ref name=NIEedit>, ''fas.org'' (blog), accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> 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."<ref name=Sanger>David E. Sanger, , ''San Francisco Gate'' (blog), April 11, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever had outed Plame.<ref name=IsikoffNewsweek/>
"he 1982 ] . . . makes it a crime to ''knowingly'' disclose the name of a covert agent" (italics added).<ref name=Gertz>Bill Gertz, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> When asked if he could ascertain whether or not Libby had revealed Plame's covert status "knowingly," Special Counsel Fitzgerald responded:
<blockquote>Let me say two things. Number one, I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert. And anything I say is not intended to say anything beyond this: that she was a CIA officer from January 1st, 2002, forward. I will confirm that her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. And all I'll say is that, look, we have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby ''knowingly, intentionally'' outed a covert agent. We have not charged that. And so I'm not making that assertion. (Italics added.)<ref name=Fitzgeraldpress> '']'', ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


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.<ref>{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, '']'', April 14, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.</ref> 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 to ] as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to call ] to the stand. Fitzgerald ultimately decided against pressing charges against Rove.<ref name=Gonyea>Don Gonyea, , NPR, ''Morning Edition'' (June 13, 2006).</ref>
Early in November 2005, posting in his own personal blog '']'', former CIA officer ] responds further to the ongoing dispute about Valerie Plame's status as a CIA ]: <blockquote>There is the claim that the law to protect intelligence identities could not have been violated because Valerie Wilson had not lived overseas for six years. Too bad this is not what the law stipulates. The law actually requires that a covered person “served” overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until exposed. . . .<ref name=JohnsonIsMax>Larry C. Johnson, ''No Quarter'' (blog) ], ], accessed ], ]. See also Nicholas D. Kristof, '']'' ], ].</ref></blockquote>


The five-count indictment of Libby included ] (two counts), ] (one count), and ] to ] (two counts). There was, however, no count for disclosing classified information, i.e., Plame's status as a CIA operative.
On February 3, 2006, court papers were released to the public pertaining to arguments held a year earlier before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia regarding the need for testimony from ] and ]. Also released was a August 27, 2004 affidavit of ]. In the affidavit, Fitzgerald states " testimony is essential to determining whether Libby is guilty of crimes, including perjury, false statements, and the improper disclosure of national defense information."<ref name=Fitzgeraldaffidavit>{{PDFlink||1.17&nbsp;]<!-- application/pdf, 1230659 bytes -->}} '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> In a footnote to that argument, Fitzgerald writes: <blockquote>If Libby knowingly disclosed information about Plame's status with the CIA, Libby would appear to have violated Title 18, United States Code, Section 793 if the information is considered "information respecting the national defense." In order to establish a violation of Title 50, United States Code, Section 421 ]], it would be necessary to establish that Libby knew or believed that Plame was a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 years. To date, we have no direct evidence that Libby knew or believed that Wilson's wife was engaged in covert work.</blockquote>


===Libby trial===
In the February 15, 2005 ruling on the issue, the court's opinion states:
{{Main|United States v. Libby}}
<blockquote>As to the leaks’ harmfulness, although the record omits specifics about Plame’s work, it appears to confirm, as alleged in the public record and reported in the press, that she worked for the CIA in some unusual capacity relating to counterproliferation. Addressing deficiencies of proof regarding the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, the special counsel refers to Plame as “''a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 years''”—representations I trust the special counsel would not make without support. (8/27/04 Aff. at 28 n.15.) (Italics added.)<ref name=Fitzgeraldaffidavit/></blockquote>
{{See also|Joseph C. Wilson#Reactions to the Libby trial and commutation}}


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, President ] ] Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine and ], calling the sentence "excessive."<ref></ref><ref></ref> In a subsequent press conference, on July 12, 2007, Bush noted, "...the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision."<ref>, July 12, 2007, accessed August 11, 2007.</ref> The Wilsons responded to the commutation in statements posted by their legal counsel, ], executive director of ] (CREW), and on their own legal support website. President ] pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.<ref name=p1>{{cite news|first=Kevin|last=Liptak|title=Trump pardons ex-Cheney aide Scooter Libby|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/politics/donald-trump-pardons-scooter-libby/index.html|website=]|date=April 13, 2018|access-date=April 13, 2018}}</ref>
An article published in '']'' on 13 February 2006 construes the information in the released documents as implying that Fitzgerald had indeed determined Valerie Plame was a covert agent.<ref name=IsikoffCIALeak>Michael Isikoff, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200602060919.asp | title=Valerie Plame: Was She, or Wasn’t She? | publisher=National Review Online | author=Byron York | date=February 6, 2006}}</ref>


=== ''Wilson v. Cheney'' ===
Plame's husband, ], stated in a July 14, 2005 interview with ] of ] that "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."<ref name=CNN> Karl Rove and CIA Leak; Joe Wilson Interview; Douglas Feith Interview; Middle East Tensions; London Terror Investigation," ], broadcast on ], ], 17:00ET, accessed ], ].</ref> When asked by Wolf Blitzer "But she hadn't been a clandestine officer for some time before that?", Wilson responded by saying "That's not anything that I can talk about. And, indeed, I'll go back to what I said earlier, the CIA believed that a possible crime had been committed, and that's why they referred it to the Justice Department." Wilson later claimed to the ] what he had meant was something different than the way the comment was received: "In an interview Friday, Wilson said his comment was meant to reflect that his wife lost her ability to be a covert agent because of the leak, not that she had stopped working for the CIA beforehand. His wife's 'ability to do the job she's been doing for close to 20 years ceased from the minute Novak's article appeared; she ceased being a clandestine officer,' he said."<ref name=Solomon>John Solomon, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref>
{{Main|Wilson v. Libby}}


On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Rove, Libby, Vice President ], and other unnamed senior White House officials (to whom they later added ])<ref name=CBSNews>, '']'', September 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006; includes PDF. Cf. at ''FindLaw.com''.</ref> for their alleged role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status.<ref>] LLP, Against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby for Violations of their Constitutional and Other Legal Rights", ''] Business Wire'' (Press Release), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006; cf. {{cite web|url= http://howappealing.law.com/PlameAddressOrder.pdf |title=Lame Plame Game Flames Out }}&nbsp;{{small|(41.8&nbsp;])}}, rpt. in ''How Appealing'' (blog), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15. 2006.</ref> Judge ] dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007;<ref name=APDimissed>], , '']'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.</ref><ref>, '']'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.</ref><ref name=Leonnigdism>], , '']'', July 20, 2007, accessed July 20, 2007.</ref><ref name=Bates>, in "Valerie Wilson, et al., Plaintiffs, v. I. Lewis Libby, Jr., et al., Defendants", "Civil Action No. 06-1258 (JDB)", '']'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 20, 2007.</ref> the Wilsons appealed. On August 12, 2008, in a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel of the ] upheld the dismissal.<ref name=DeckerOReilly>Susan Decker and Cary O'Reilly, , '']'', August 12, 2008, accessed August 13, 2008.</ref><ref name=DCCircuit>{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at '']'', August 12, 2008, accessed August 13, 2008.</ref> ], of ], which represents the Wilsons, said "the group will request the full D.C. Circuit to review the case and appeal to the ]."<ref name=DeckerOReilly/><ref name=WilsonsCircuitresp>", ''The Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust'', August 12, 2008, accessed August 14, 2008.</ref> 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."<ref name=WilsonAppeal> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222030539/http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/39740 |date=February 22, 2011 }},'']'' (CREW), May 20, 2009, accessed May 22, 2009.</ref>
In the '']'', ] states that, according to anonymous U.S. officials, "The identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was compromised twice before her name appeared in a news column that triggered a federal illegal-disclosure investigation.... Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy," and, "n a second compromise...a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana."<ref name=Gertz>Bill Gertz, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref>


On June 21, 2009, the ] refused to hear the appeal.<ref name=AppealDenied> {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130105085910/http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2009/06/supreme-court-will-not-revive-valerie-plame-lawsuit/97233 |date=January 5, 2013 }}, '']'', June 21, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012.</ref>
This information about such prior compromises of Plame's CIA status was used in a court briefing filed on behalf of several news agencies seeking to prevent ] and ] from going to jail for not disclosing their sources to ] and the federal grand jury investigating her exposure by ].<ref>Links given to the brief in sources cited in ] is, unfortunately, defunct.</ref>{{See|Plame affair legal questions}}


===House Oversight Committee hearing===
Some press accounts have raised questions about whether or not the CIA still considered Plame a "covert" agent––that is, the precise nature of her "classified" status or the type of "cover" that she had and whether or not it was "official" or "non-official"––at the time she was outed in the Novak column of July 14, 2003. However, the Grand Jury indictment states that Ms. Plame was in a classifed employment staus with CIA. Yet, as Johnson observes in his Congressional testimony previously cited:<blockquote>These comments reveal an astonishing ignorance of the intelligence community and the role of cover. The fact is that there are thousands of U.S. intelligence officers who "work at a desk" in the Washington, D.C. area every day who are undercover. Some have official cover, and some have non-official cover. Both classes of cover must and should be protected.<ref name=officialhearingtranscript>"Official transcript of the released by the office of Senator Dorgan, of the "Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, House Government Reform Committee Minority" hearing of "Friday, July 22, 2005, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon, 138 Dirksen Senate Office Building," entitled "A Special Joint Oversight Hearing on the National Security Consequences of Disclosing the Identity of a Covert Intelligence Officer" (Hearing Transcript); PDF including [http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/hearings/hearing23/cialetter.pdf "An Open Statement to the Leaders of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate."</ref></blockquote>
On March 8, 2007, two days after the verdict in the ], Congressman ], chair of the ], 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."<ref>{{cite web |title=Plame to Testify to Congress on Leak |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-leak/plame-to-testify-to-congress-on-leak-idUSN0833270020070309 |access-date=March 31, 2022 |website=] |date=March 8, 2007}}</ref><ref name=Oversight> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419075417/http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1205 |date=April 19, 2007 }}, online posting, ], ''oversight.house.gov'', March 16, 2007, accessed March 19, 2007.</ref>


On March 16, 2007, at these hearings about the disclosure, Waxman read a statement about Plame's CIA career that had been cleared by ] Gen. ] and the CIA, stating that she was undercover and that her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under ].
According to a report published in '']'' (some of whose contents have been disputed by ]), Plame worked in the Langley, Virginia, CIA headquarters since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, married Joe Wilson in 1998, and gave birth to their twins in 2000.<ref name=Memmot>Mark Memmott, , '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref><ref>Cf. '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref>


Subsequent reports in various news accounts focused on the following parts of her testimony:
On September 6, 2006, ] published an article entitled "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA," citing information contained in the book ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'', co-written by Corn and ]. According to Corn:
<blockquote>Valerie Plame was recruited into the CIA in 1985, straight out of Pennsylvania State University. After two years of training to be a covert case officer, she served a stint on the Greece desk, according to Fred Rustmann, a former CIA official who supervised her then. Next she was posted to Athens and posed as a State Department employee. Her job was to spot and recruit agents for the agency. In the early 1990s, she became what's known as a nonofficial cover officer. . . . She told people she was with an energy firm. Her main mission remained the same: to gather agents for the CIA. . . . In 1997 she returned to CIA headquarters and joined the Counterproliferation Division. (About this time, she moved in with Joseph Wilson; they later married.) She was eventually given a choice: North Korea or Iraq. She selected the latter. . . .<br>
Her unit was expanded and renamed the Joint Task Force on Iraq. Within months of 9/11, the JTFI grew to fifty or so employees. Valerie Wilson was placed in charge of its operations group. . . . Wilson, too, occasionally flew overseas to monitor operations. She also went to Jordan to work with Jordanian intelligence officials who had intercepted a shipment of aluminum tubes heading to Iraq that CIA analysts were claiming — wrongly — were for a nuclear weapons program. . . .<br>
''When the Novak column ran, Valerie Wilson was in the process of changing her clandestine status from ] to ], as she prepared for a new job in personnel management. Her aim, she told colleagues, was to put in time as an administrator — to rise up a notch or two — and then return to secret operations''. (Italics added.)<ref name=Corn>David Corn, '']'' (web only) ], ].</ref></blockquote>


* "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."<ref>, '']'' March 16, 2007, accessed March 19, 2007.</ref>
According to Vicky Ward in the ''Vanity Fair'' article, the Wilsons met and started dating in early 1997, after "Plame moved back to the Washington area, partly because (as was recently reported in The New York Times) the C.I.A. suspected that her name may have been on a list given to the Russians by the double agent Aldrich Ames in 1994." After their 1998 marriage and before the disclosure of her identity by Novak, "in the spring , Plame was in the process of moving from NOC status to State Department cover. Wilson speculates that 'if more people knew than should have, then somebody over at the White House talked earlier than they should have been talking.'"<ref name=VanityFair/>
* 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."<ref name=Greene>Richard Allen Greene, , ], March 16, 2007, accessed March 19, 2007.</ref>
* She did not select her husband for a CIA fact-finding trip to ], 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 no ] involved. I did not have the authority ."<ref name=Greene/>


===''Fair Game''===
David Corn emphasizes, Plame worked for the CIA on determining the use of ] purchased by Iraq.<ref name=Corn>David Corn, '']'' (web only) ], ].</ref> CIA analysts prior to the Iraq invasion have been cited as believing that Iraq was trying to acquire ] and that these alumninum tubes could be used in a centrifuge for nuclear enrichment.<ref name=CIAreport1>'' Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 July Through 31 December 200'', Office of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (ODCI), ], Dec. 2002, accessed ], ].</ref><ref name=CIAreport2>'' on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January Through 30 June 2002'', Office of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (ODCI), ], June 2002, accessed ], ].</ref> According to Isikoff and Corn, as Corn presents their findings in "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA" on September 6, 2006, however, the ] work being done by Plame and her CIA colleagues in the Directorate of Central Intelligence (DCI) ] Center <ref>.</ref> strongly contradicts those previously-reported beliefs:
{{Main|Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House}}
<blockquote>"We knew nothing about what was going on in Iraq," a CIA official recalled. "We were way behind the eight ball. We had to look under every rock." Wilson, too, occasionally flew overseas to monitor operations. She also went to Jordan to work with Jordanian intelligence officials who had intercepted a shipment of aluminum tubes heading to Iraq that CIA analysts were claiming--wrongly--were for a nuclear weapons program. (The analysts rolled over the government's top nuclear experts, who had concluded the tubes were not destined for a nuclear program.)<br>
The JTFI found nothing. The few scientists it managed to reach insisted Saddam had no WMD programs. Task force officers sent reports detailing the denials into the CIA bureaucracy. The defectors were duds--fabricators and embellishers. (JTFI officials came to suspect that some had been sent their way by Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, an exile group that desired a US invasion of Iraq.) The results were frustrating for the officers. Were they not doing their job well enough--or did Saddam not have an arsenal of unconventional weapons? Valerie Wilson and other JTFI officers were almost too overwhelmed to consider the possibility that their small number of operations was, in a way, coming up with the correct answer: There was no intelligence to find on Saddam's WMDs because the weapons did not exist. Still, she and her colleagues kept looking. (She also assisted operations involving Iran and WMDs.)<br>
When the war started in March 2003, JTFI officers were disappointed. "I felt like we ran out of time," one CIA officer recalled. "The war came so suddenly. We didn't have enough information to challenge the assumption that there were WMDs.... How do you know it's a dry well? That Saddam was constrained. Given more time, we could have worked through the issue.... From 9/11 to the war--eighteen months--that was not enough time to get a good answer to this important question."
<ref name=Corn>David Corn, '']'' (web only) ], ].</ref></blockquote>


Plame's husband Joseph Wilson announced on March 6, 2007, that the couple had "signed a deal with ] of ] 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.<ref name=Frei>Matt Frei, , '']'' (Washington), March 7, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007; cf. transcript of Larry King interview with Joseph C. Wilson, ] will play Valerie Plame. , '']'', ], broadcast March 6, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007.</ref> The feature film, a co-production between Weed Road's ] and ] of ] with a screenplay by ] and ] to be based in part on Valerie Wilson's ] ''Fair Game'' (contingent on CIA clearances) originally scheduled for release in August 2007, but ultimately published on October 22, 2007.<ref name=Variety>{{cite magazine|first=Michael|last=Fleming|url=https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/plame-film-in-works-at-warner-bros-2-1117960398/|title=Plame Film in Works at Warner Bros.: Studio Sets Movie about CIA Leak Scandal|magazine=]|date=March 1, 2007|access-date=March 18, 2007}}</ref>
{{wikinews|Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak}}


In May 2006, ''The New York Times'' reported that Valerie Wilson agreed to a $2.5 million book deal with ], a division of ]. 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."<ref name=Rich1>{{cite news|first=Motoko|last=Rich|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/books/05cnd-plame.html|title=Valerie Plame Gets Book Deal|newspaper=]|date=May 5, 2006|accessdate=July 15, 2006}}</ref> Subsequently, the ''New York Times'' reported that the book deal fell through and that Plame was in exclusive negotiations with ].<ref name=Rich1/> Ultimately, Simon and Schuster publicly confirmed the book deal, though not the financial terms and, at first, no set publication date.<ref name=Corn/><ref name=Italie>Hillel Italie (]), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720053733/http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/gossip/15032040.htm |date=July 20, 2006 }}, '']'' July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006. (Free registration required.)</ref>
==The "Plame affair" (The "CIA leak scandal")==
{{main|Plame affair}}


], October 2016]]
{{Wikiquote|Patrick Fitzgerald}}
==The Fitzgerald Grand Jury investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's CIA cover==
{{main|CIA leak grand jury investigation}}
{{see|Plame affair criminal investigation}}
{{See also|United States v. Libby}}


On May 31, 2007, various news media reported that Simon and Schuster and Valerie Wilson were suing ], ], and ], ], arguing that the CIA "is unconstitutionally interfering with the publication of her memoir, '']'', ... set to be published in October , by not allowing Plame to mention the dates that she served in the CIA."<ref name=WNBC>, '']'' (Channel 4, ]), May 31, 2007, accessed June 10, 2007.</ref><ref name="Maul">Kimberly Maul, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222084428/http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003592363|date=December 22, 2007}}, '']'', May 31, 2007, accessed June 10, 2007.</ref> Judge Barbara S. Jones, of the ], in ], 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.
In his press conference of October 28, 2005, Special Counsel Fitzgerald explained in considerable detail the necessity of "secrecy" about his Grand 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 the indictment of ] as it pertains to ].<ref name=Fitzgeraldpress3> '']'', ], ], accessed ], ]:
<blockquote>. . . n October 2003, the FBI interviewed Mr. Libby. Mr. Libby is the vice president's chief of staff. He's also an assistant to the president and an assistant to the vice president for national security affairs.<br>
. . . The focus of the interview was what it that he had known about Wilson's wife, Valerie Wilson, what he knew about Ms. Wilson, what he said to people, why he said it, and how he learned it.<br>
And to be frank, Mr. Libby gave the FBI a compelling story.<br>
. . . The indictment alleges that Mr. Libby learned the information about Valerie Wilson at least three times in June of 2003 from government officials.<br>
Let me make clear there was nothing wrong with government officials discussing Valerie Wilson or Mr. Wilson or his wife and imparting the information to Mr. Libby.<br>
But in early June, Mr. Libby learned about Valerie Wilson and the role she was believed to play in having sent Mr. Wilson on a trip overseas from a senior CIA officer on or around June 11th, from an undersecretary of state on or around June 11th, and from the vice president on or about June 12th. . . .<br>
It's also clear, as set forth in the indictment, that some time prior to July 8th he also learned it from somebody else working in the Vice President's Office.<br>
So at least four people within the government told Mr. Libby about Valerie Wilson, often referred to as "Wilson's wife," working at the CIA and believed to be responsible for helping organize a trip that Mr. Wilson took overseas.<br>
In addition to hearing it from government officials, it's also alleged in the indictment that at least three times Mr. Libby discussed this information with other government officials.<br>
It's alleged in the indictment that on June 14th of 2003, a full month before Mr. Novak's column, Mr. Libby discussed it in a conversation with a CIA briefer in which he was complaining to the CIA briefer his belief that the CIA was leaking information about something or making critical comments, and he brought up Joe Wilson and Valerie Wilson. . . .<br>
It's also alleged in the indictment that Mr. Libby discussed it with the White House press secretary on July 7th, 2003, over lunch. What's important about that is that Mr. Libby, the indictment alleges, was telling Mr. Fleischer something on Monday that he claims to have learned on Thursday.<br>
In addition to discussing it with the press secretary on July 7th, there was also a discussion on or about July 8th in which counsel for the vice president was asked a question by Mr. Libby as to what paperwork the Central Intelligence Agency would have if an employee had a spouse go on a trip. . . .<br>
So that at least seven discussions involving government officials prior to the day when Mr. Libby claims he learned this information as if it were new from Mr. Russert. And, in fact, when he spoke to Mr. Russert, they never discussed it.<br>
But in addition to focusing on how it is that Mr. Libby learned this information and what he thought about it, it's important to focus on what it is that Mr. Libby said to the reporters. . . .<br>
In short -- and in those conversations, Mr. Libby never said , "This is something that other reporters are saying;" Mr. Libby never said, "This is something that I don't know if it's true;" Mr. Libby never said, "I don't even know if he had a wife."<br>
FITZGERALD: ''At the end of the day what appears is that Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true''.<br>
''It was false''. He was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And then ''he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly''.<br>
Now, as I said before, this grand jury investigation has been conducted ''in secret''. I believe it should have been conducted in secret, not only because it's ''required by those rules'', but because the rules are wise. ''Those rules protect all of us''.<br>
FITZGERALD: ''We are now going from a grand jury investigation to an indictment, a public charge and a public trial. The rules will be different''.<br>
But I think what we see here today, when a vice president's chief of staff is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, it does show the world that this is a country that takes its law seriously; that all citizens are bound by the law.<br>
But what we need to also show the world is that we can also apply the same safeguards to all our citizens, including high officials. Much as they must be bound by the law, they must follow the same rules.<br>
So I ask everyone involved in this process, anyone who participates in this trial, anyone who covers this trial, anyone sitting home watching these proceedings to follow this process with an American appreciation for our values and our dignity.<br>
Let's let the process take place. Let's take a deep breath and let justice process the system. . . . (Italics added.)</ref></blockquote>
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.<ref name=Fitzgeraldpress4> '']'', ], ], accessed ], ]:<blockquote>I will say this: ''Mr. Libby is presumed innocent. He would not be guilty unless and until a jury of 12 people came back and returned a verdict saying so''.<br>
But ''if what we allege in the indictment is true, then what is charged is a very, very serious crime that will vindicate the public interest in finding out what happened here''.<br>
QUESTION: Mr. Fitzgerald, do you have evidence that the vice president of the United States, one of Mr. Libby's original sources for this information, encouraged him to leak it or encouraged him to lie about leaking?<br>
FITZGERALD: I'm not making allegations about anyone not charged in the indictment. . . .<br>
We don't talk about people that are not charged with a crime in the indictment.<br>
We can't talk about information not contained in the four corners of the indictment. (Italics added.)</ref></blockquote>


On October 31, 2007, in an interview with ] broadcast on '']'', Valerie Wilson discussed many aspects relating to her memoir: the ]; ''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.<ref name=RoseWilson>], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706183221/http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/10/31/2/a-conversation-with-valerie-plame-wilson |date=July 6, 2008 }}, ''],'' ], ] (New York), recorded October 29, 2007, broadcast October 31, 2007, 12:30 a.m. ET–1:00 a.m. ET, accessed November 6, 2007 (video clip).</ref>
Official court documents released later, on ], ], reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting with ] reporter ] to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002 ] ] (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 ."<ref name=TheSmokingGun>{{PDFlink||200&nbsp;]<!-- application/pdf, 205526 bytes -->}}, as posted online in '']'' (blog) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> According to his testimony, the information Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller "was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, ] told reporters that "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."<ref name=IsikoffNewsweek>Michael Isikoff, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> 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 a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.<ref name=NIEedit> ''fas.org'' (blog), accessed ], ].</ref> 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."<ref name=Sanger>David E. Sanger, ''San Francisco Gate'' (blog) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever outed Plame.<ref name=IsikoffNewsweek/>


] October 2008]]
A court filing by Libby's defense team argued that Valerie Plame was not foremost on the minds of administration officials as they sought to rebut charges made by her husband, Joseph Wilson, that the White House manipulated intelligence to make a case for invasion. The filing indicated that Libby's lawyers did not intend to say he was told to reveal Plame's identity.<ref> '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> 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 to Africa as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planed to call Karl Rove to the stand. According to Rove's lawyer, Fitzgerald has decided against pressing charges against Rove.<ref name=Solomon>John Solomon, ''], ], ], accessed ], ].</ref>


The film, ], was released November 5, 2010, starring ] and ]. It is based on two books, one written by Plame, and the other by her husband.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Kirk|last=Honeycutt|title=''Fair Game'' n- film review|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/node/29648 |magazine=]|date=October 10, 2010|access-date=April 20, 2020 |archive-date=November 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113042537/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/node/29648 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The ''Washington Post'' editorial page, led by editor Fred Hiatt, a vocal supporter of the Iraq War,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a34497/fred-hiatt-would-like-to-remind-you-that-war-is-the-answer |title=The Many Wars Of Fred Hiatt: The Unique History Of One Man's Mongering |first=Charles P.|last=Pierce |date=April 20, 2015 |magazine=] |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref> who blamed Wilson for Plame's identity being leaked,<ref>{{cite news |title=End of an Affair |newspaper=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418031622/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101460.html |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |url-status=live |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101460.html}}</ref> described the movie as being "full of distortions—not to mention outright inventions",<ref>, at '']'', published December 3, 2010; retrieved February 5, 2017</ref> while news reporters Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby at ''The Washington Post'' disagreed, saying "The movie holds up as a thoroughly researched and essentially accurate account—albeit with caveats".<ref name="gets some things">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110407989.html |title='Fair Game' gets some things about the Valerie Plame case right, some wrong|newspaper=] |first1=Walter |last1=Pincus |first2=Richard |last2=Leiby |date=November 7, 2010}}</ref>
The five-count ] of Libby included obstruction of justice (one count), making false statements (two counts), and perjury (two counts). 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. ]


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, titled ''Blowback'', was released on October 1, 2013, by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of the ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.authorlink.com/news/item/2654/Penguin-New-Imprint-Named-Blue-Rider-Press |title=authorlink.com |access-date=April 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521034446/http://www.authorlink.com/news/item/2654/Penguin-New-Imprint-Named-Blue-Rider-Press |archive-date=May 21, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Congressional Investigation==
On March 8, 2007, two days after the verdict in the ], Congressman ], chair of the ], 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." <ref>{{web cite|title=Plame to testify to Congress on leak | publisher=Reuters | date=March 9, 2007 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900549.html}}</ref>


==The Wilsons' civil suit== ===Anti Trump fundraiser ===
In August 2017, Plame set up a ] fundraising page in an attempt to buy a majority interest in ] and kick U.S. President ] off the network.<ref name="sfgate-23aug2017">{{cite news|title=Former CIA agent wants to buy Twitter to kick Trump off|url=http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Valerie-Plame-Wilson-wants-to-buy-Twitter-to-kick-11952291.php|access-date=August 23, 2017|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=August 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823181721/http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Valerie-Plame-Wilson-wants-to-buy-Twitter-to-kick-11952291.php|archive-date=August 23, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="theguardian.com"> Associated Press in Washington Thursday 24 August 2017 15.50 BST</ref><ref name="usatoday.com"> Jessica Estepa, ''USA Today'', August 22, 2017</ref> She launched her campaign because she believes that Donald Trump 'emboldens white supremacists' and encourages 'violence against journalists'.<ref name="ijr.com"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923002651/http://ijr.com/the-declaration/2017/09/980185-valerie-plame-raised-88k-ban-trump-emboldens-white-supremacists-violence-journalists |date=September 23, 2017 }} by Pardes Seleh, ''Independent Law Journal'', September 9, 2017</ref>
On July 13, 2006, a civil suit was filed by Joseph and Valerie Wilson against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top Presidential advisor Karl Rove and other unnamed senior White House officials, for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status.<ref>] LLP, ''] Business Wire'' (Press Release) ], ], accessed ], ]; cf. {{PDFlink||41.8&nbsp;]<!-- application/pdf, 42862 bytes -->}} ''How Appealing'' (blog), ], ], accessed ]. ].</ref>


Titled "Let's #BuyTwitter and #BanTrump", she set the campaign's goal to $1 billion; her campaign raised $88,000.<ref name="ijr.com"/>
In the first ruling issued in the Wilson/Plame civil suit, plaintiffs had moved for permission to leave their residential address off the complaint. Judge Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave the motion short shrift:<blockquote>Plaintiffs ask that "ut of respect for privacy in light of their public visibility," Pls.’ Mot. at 1, they be excused from complying with rules requiring that each party to a civil action include his or her full residential address in the caption of the “first filing by or on behalf of” the party. See L. Civ. R. 5.1(e)(1), 11.1. This Court does not readily grant relief from the ordinary application of such rules, nor does the Court believe that a plaintiff’s mere invocation of privacy interests and public prominence, without more, warrants an exception to rules that apply to all other litigants. Moreover, the implicit premise of plaintiffs’ motion —- that their residential address is confidential —- is questionable. In less than thirty minutes, the Court was able to ascertain plaintiffs’ residential address from multiple publicly available sources, including a database of federal government records. Indeed, an attorney who filed this motion on plaintiffs’ behalf has stated in a nationally circulated newspaper that he is plaintiffs’ next-door neighbor, and the residential address of that attorney also is readily ascertainable. Based on the current record, then, the relief plaintiffs seek is not warranted.</blockquote>


=== Antisemitism controversy ===
Attorney Joe Cotchett, who successfully won a multi-billion dollar judgment (later reduced to $1.75 billion) on behalf of over 20,000 pensioners in the suit that the plaintiffs brought against ] in the 1990s, is "lead trial lawyer in the civil lawsuit filed by ex-CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, against Vice President Dick Cheney; his former chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby; presidential adviser Karl Rove; and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage," according to Aaron Kinney, a staff writer for ''Daily Review''. Kinney quotes Cotchett's observation that the case "involves fundamental constitutional issues" that go "right to the heart of our national security. . . . Cotchett plans to reach into a dark chapter in the Clintons' life to propel the Wilsons' civil suit. The court ruling that required President ] to testify in a lawsuit brought by ] serves as a ] to compel testimony from ] and his co-defendants, Cotchett said. . . ."<ref>Aaron Kinney, Arguing Lawsuit for Ex-CIA Officer Could Be Cotchett's Biggest Venture," ''Daily Review'', ''InsideBayArea.com'' ], ], Local News, accessed ], ].</ref>
In September 2017, Plame tweeted a link to an article from '']'' website posted by ], titled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars", repeating the title of the article in her tweet.<ref>{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Hayes|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hayesbrown/plame-the-jews|title=It's Been A Not-Great Day For Valerie Plame On Twitter Dot Com|work=BuzzFeed News|date=September 21, 2017|access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Kirchick">{{cite news|last=Kirchick |first=James|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/245720/valerie-plames-real-blunder|title=Valerie Plame's Real Blunder|work=Tablet|date=September 25, 2017|access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Kirchick" /> Amid criticism, Plame first defended her posts, replying on Twitter that "Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish."<ref name="Kirchick" /><ref name="thehill.com"> ''The Hill'', by Mallory Shelbourbe, 09/21/17</ref> She also said that people should "read the entire article" without "biases", writing in defense of herself after the initial backlash:<ref name="Ponnuru">{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/451633/valerie-plame-wilson-anti-semite |title=Valerie Plame Wilson, Anti-Semite |first=Ramesh |last=Ponnuru |website=] |date=September 22, 2017}}</ref> "read the entire article, just for a moment, to put aside your biases and think clearly."<ref> by Seth J. Frantzman, September 10, 2019, ''Jerusalem Post''</ref>


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."<ref>{{cite web |title=Former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson offers epic apology after tweeting anti-Semitic story: 'One should not tweet while moving' |website=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206205606/https://www.businessinsider.com/valerie-plame-wilson-apology-tweeting-anti-semitic-story-2017-9 |archive-date=December 6, 2022 |url-status=live |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/valerie-plame-wilson-apology-tweeting-anti-semitic-story-2017-9}}</ref> ] and Caleb Ecarma have argued that the incident followed a pattern of her posting antisemitic content, and of Plame making jokes about "rich Jews".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mediaite.com/online/ex-cia-officer-valerie-plame-apologizes-for-promoting-article-blaming-americas-jews-for-war |title=Ex-CIA Officer Valerie Plame Apologizes for Promoting Article Blaming 'America's Jews' For War |first=Caleb|last=Ecarma |date=September 21, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Ponnuru" /> She had tweeted at least eight articles from the same website before,<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/22/why-people-care-about-valerie-plame-and-her-anti-semitic-tweet/ |title=Why people care about Valerie Plame and her anti-Semitic tweet |first=Callum |last=Borchers |date=September 22, 2017 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> in which she previously retweeted links to ] of 'dancing Israelis' being behind the ].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/09/22/the-other-problem-with-valerie-plames-horrible-anti-semitic-tweet/ |title=The other problem with Valerie Plame's horrible anti-Semitic tweet |first=Molly |last=Roberts |date=September 22, 2017 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>
==Public disclosure of Novak's "primary source" of "the leak" as Richard Armitage==
In the first week of September 2006, after over three years of controversial speculation and an ongoing ] investigation, the general public learned initially from news reports and advance word of the book ''Hubris'', by ] and ], that Novak's "primary source" of information about Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame being a "CIA operative" leaked in his column of 14 July 2003 ("the original leaker") was former ] ].<ref name=Lewis>Neil A. Lewis, '']'' ], ].</ref>


===Congressional run===
David Martin, of ], who interviewed Armitage about that public disclosure, reports as follows:<blockquote>In July 2003, Armitage told columnist Robert Novak that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and Novak mentioned it in a column. It's a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer. But, according to his own recently-publicized accounts in the media, Armitage didn't yet realize what he had done.<br>
{{main|2020 United States House of Representatives elections in New Mexico#District 3}}
So, what exactly did he tell Novak?<br>
"At the end of a wide-ranging interview he asked me, 'Why did the CIA send Ambassador (Wilson) to Africa?' I said I didn't know, but that she worked out at the agency," Armitage says.<br>
Armitage says he told Novak because it was "just an offhand question." "I didn't put any big import on it and I just answered and it was the last question we had," he says. . . .<br>
"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however.<br>
"First of all, I felt so terrible about what I'd done that I felt I deserved whatever was coming to me. And secondarily, I didn't need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth. I was already doing that," Armitage explains. "I was not intentionally outing anybody. As I say, I have tremendous respect for Ambassador. Wilson's African credentials. I didn't know anything about his wife and made an offhand comment. I didn't try to out anybody."<br>
. . . . Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."<ref name=Martin>"" in an interview with David Martin of ], September 7, 2006. Cf. as reported in ''LegalNewsTV.com'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


In May 2019, Plame announced her candidacy for the ] for {{ushr|NM|3}} in the ].<ref name=Saul>Stephanie Saul, , ''New York Times'' (May 9, 2019).</ref> The seat, in northern New Mexico, was being vacated by Democratic Representative ], who ran for Senate instead.<ref name=Saul/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Jada Yuan |title=Valerie Plame, America's most famous ex-spy, finds her new identity |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/valerie-plame-americas-most-famous-ex-spy-finds-her-new-identity/2019/12/01/2d29086a-0177-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html |access-date=June 3, 2020|newspaper=]}}</ref> She outspent her rivals with funding from outside her district.<ref name=Medina>Jennifer Medina, , ''New York Times'' (June 3, 2020).</ref> On June 2, 2020, she was defeated in the seven-way Democratic primary election by ].<ref name=Medina/> Fernandez received 44,480 votes, Plame 25,775 votes, and ] 12,292 votes.<ref>, New Mexico Secretary of State.</ref>
According to Armitage, as interviewed by Martin and reported by ] online, "hen Libby was indicted in October 2005 on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to investigators, Fitzgerald said Libby was the first official to discuss Plame in a conversation with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. . . . After Fitzgerald's comment about Libby at a news conference, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward reminded Armitage that he had made a passing comment to him days before Libby's conversation with Miller. That meant that Armitage, not Libby, had been the first to mention it to a reporter, and he quickly informed the prosecutor of that recollection."<ref name=CBSNews>


== Personal life ==
Since Armitage's public disclosure, Novak has disputed several details of Armitage's account made in the latter's various media interviews.<ref>], '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref>
After graduating from Penn State in 1985, Plame married Todd Sesler; the marriage ended in divorce in 1989.<ref name="VanityFair" /> In 1997, while working for the ] (CIA), Plame met former Ambassador ].<ref name="WilsonPolitics">Joseph C. Wilson, '']: 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.)</ref><ref name="Goffard" /><ref>Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'', p. 242</ref> They were married on April 3, 1998.<ref>Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'', p. 273</ref> At the time they met, Wilson related in his memoir, he was ] from his second wife Jacqueline. They ]d after 12 years of marriage so that he could marry Plame.<ref name="WilsonPolitics" /> They had two children, twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000. Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Goodman|first1=Alana|date=March 29, 2019|title=Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame and diplomat husband Joe Wilson are divorced|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/outed-cia-spy-valerie-plame-and-diplomat-husband-joe-wilson-are-divorced|magazine=Washington Examiner|access-date=June 19, 2019}}</ref> Wilson died in 2019. Plame married Dr. ], President of ], in 2020.


Prior to the disclosure of her CIA job, the family lived in ]<ref name="VanityFair" /> After she resigned from the CIA following the disclosure of her CIA position, in January 2006, the family moved to ],<ref name="WilsonIndependent">Andrew Buncombe and ], ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830045111/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2368902.ece|date=August 30, 2008}}), '']'', March 18, 2007, accessed August 7, 2007. (Interview.)</ref><ref name="LiptakAug" /> where Plame served as a consultant to the ] 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.<ref>{{cite web|date=March 10, 2011|title=Valerie Plame: American values were undermined by Dick Cheney|url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/857747-valerie-plame-american-values-were-undermined-by-dick-cheney|access-date=March 11, 2011|work=Metro |archive-date=March 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320030756/http://www.metro.co.uk/news/857747-valerie-plame-american-values-were-undermined-by-dick-cheney|url-status=dead}}</ref>
On ], ], Joseph and Valerie Wilson amended their ], adding Armitage as a fourth defendant.<ref name=CBSNews> '']'' ], ], accessed ], ]; includes PDF. Cf. at ''FindLaw.com''.</ref> Unlike their charges against Rove, Cheney, and Libby, "claiming that they had violated her constitutional rights and discredited her by disclosing that she was an undercover CIA operative," the Wilsons are suing Armitage "for violating the 'Wilsons' constitutional right to privacy, Mrs. Wilson's constitutional right to property, and for committing the tort of publication of private facts.'"<ref name=CBSArmitageAdded>Melanie Sloan, exec. dir., ] (CREW), press release, as qtd. in '']'' ], ], accessed ], ]; includes PDF.</ref>
{{See also|Joseph C. Wilson}}
{{See also|Plame affair}}


Plame was involved in the ] of Democratic candidate ].<ref>{{cite news |last=Richman |first=J. |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_28738781/hillary-clinton-plans-five-bay-area-fundraisers |newspaper=The Mercury News |date=September 1, 2015 |title=Hillary Clinton plans four Bay Area fundraisers}}</ref>
On ], ], ] reported that Special Counsel Fitzgerald does not want to discuss Armitage in the pending federal court case against Libby:<blockquote>Fitzgerald argues that his decision not to charge Armitage or anyone else with disclosing the name of a CIA operative should not be grounds to acquit Libby, "It is improper for the jury to consider, or for counsel to suggest, that the decisions by the government not to charge additional crimes or defendants are grounds that could support an acquittal on the crimes charged in the indictment," the special counsel writes.<ref> ] ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>


In December of 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 <ref>https://reason.com/2024/12/31/a-university-president-accused-of-squandering-public-money-resigns-in-exchange-for-a-2-million-payout/</ref>.
On ], ], according to the ] and '']'', the judge in the case has "outlined evidence in the CIA. Leak Case," suggesting that some of trial's parameters have been decided, though they have not yet been made public.<ref> '']'' ], ], accessed ], ]:<blockquote>The fight over classified materials is a key issue leading up to the trial. Prosecutors say Libby is trying to get the case dismissed by demanding so much sensitive information that the government has no choice but to refuse.<br>
Libby is accused of lying to investigators about what he told reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame. He wants to use some of the nation's most sensitive information -- the president's daily terrorism briefings -- to bolster his claim that he had important things on his mind and simply forgot details about the conversations.<br>
Nearly all of U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's ruling was sealed Wednesday, so it's not clear what records he said must be made available. The more documents Walton admits, the better it is for Libby.<br>
That opinion on what documents must be available marked the first of two stages in the classified information fight. The next stage, deciding how to redact the documents to protect national security but still provide Libby a fair trial, is already under way.<br>
Walton gave Libby an early victory this week when he told Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he was proposing too many redactions.<br>
Fitzgerald has spent three years investigating whether the Bush administration revealed Plame's job to reporters. Nobody was charged with the leak itself.<br>
Though the story of the leak is convoluted and the fight over classified information is arcane, Libby's trial hinges on a simple question: whether he lied to investigators or just didn't remember his conversations correctly.<br>
Portions of Walton's opinion likely will become public next month. He ordered national security agencies to review the opinion and report back to him on what can be released by Dec. 1.</ref></blockquote>


== Citations ==
==Subsequent press reactions==
{{Reflist|30em}}
Like Isikoff and Corn, later journalists in the ], independent journalists, interviewed CIA agents, and other skeptics of the ] still vigorously dispute its frequently-repeated claims and earlier testimony of some CIA agents that the purchase of the ] by Iraq constitutes ''proof'' of a renewed nuclear enrichment program for the eventual production of weapons of mass destruction. Such ongoing questioning of these controversial and hotly-debated claims tends to support Wilson's arguments about such rationales for the ] being part of a "fabric of lies, distortions, and misinformation that it had woven and fed the world to justify its war" in his 2004 "Diplomat's Memoir" ''The Politics of Truth'' (414-15).<ref>See, e.g., ], '''' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc) ], ] and '''' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc) ], ], both accessed ], ]; cf. ], ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina'' (New York: ], 2006), as cited in book rev. by ], '']'' ], ], sec. 7 (Book Rev.): 10, cols. 2-3.</ref>


== General and cited references ==
] observes:
{{refbegin|colwidth=60em}}
<blockquote>Now, based on a new report about ]’s role in leaking Plame’s identity, the ], the ] and other leading U.S. news organizations are joining in a new campaign to disparage those who harbored suspicions about the ]’s actions – from special prosecutor ] to former Ambassador ].<br>
* . FindLaw.com, September 13, 2006.
For these national journalists who act as if they are oblivious to all the evidence of a long-running ] smear campaign and cover-up, it might be time to pose the “]” question: “How can you be so obtuse?”<br>
* . '']'', September 8, 2006. Accessed June 17, 2007. {{Cite web |url=http://townhall.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?ContentGuid=4cd646c8-6131-4910-8068-92ad42629fdc |title=Audio |access-date=February 7, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415040233/http://townhall.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?ContentGuid=4cd646c8-6131-4910-8068-92ad42629fdc |url-status=bot: unknown }}
Of course, in the movie, the warden really wasn’t “obtuse.” He just wanted to keep benefiting from Dufrense’s financial skills and, most importantly, to protect his corrupt schemes. The motives of the Washington news media may be more of a mystery. ("How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?")<ref name=Parryobtuse>], '''' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>
* . '']'', September 1, 2006.

* ]. . '']'' (blog), July 9, 2005. Accessed September 24, 2006.
On ], ], Parry presented some "new clues in the Plame mystery suggest that – contrary to Washington’s “conventional wisdom” which holds that Armitage’s confession clears Rove and the White House of wrongdoing – Armitage may have simply been another participant in the ugly scheme.<ref name=ParryClues>], '']'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>
* Corn, David. . ''DavidCorn.com'' (journalist's blog), September 15, 2006. Accessed November 20, 2006. (Reply to Toensing.)

* Corn, David. . '']'' (''Capital Games'' blog), July 16, 2006. Accessed September 24, 2006.
] argues, in his '']'' of ]'s ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold'':
* ]. . '']'', March 13, 2006. Accessed November 16, 2006.
<blockquote>Newspaper editors should not have to feel the need to prove their ], or their absence of ]. Their job is to publish what they believe to be true, based on evidence and good judgment. As Rich points out, such journals as ] and ] were quicker to see through government shenanigans than the ]. And reporters from ] got the story about ] ] right, before ] caught on. “At Knight Ridder,” Rich says, “there was a clearer institutional grasp of the big picture.”<br><br>
* Ensor, David, et al. . '']'' on ]. ''].com'', October 1, 2003. Accessed September 24, 2006.
Intimidation is only part of the story, however. The changing nature of gathering and publishing information has made ] ] unusually defensive. That more people than ever are now able to express their views, on radio shows and Web sites, is perhaps a form of ], but it has undermined the authority of editors, whose expertise was meant to act as a filter against nonsense or ]. And the deliberate confusion, on ], of ] and ] has done further damage. ("Theater of War" 11, col. 1)<ref name=fixingintelligence>See ], 2005 convention resolution passed on ], ], as posted on ''veteransforpeace.org'', accessed ], ]. Cf. '''' (New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2002), a book by Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, US Army, Ret., reviewed by Hayden B. Peake, "Intelligence in Recent Public Literature," ''cia.gov'', accessed ], ]. The unintended pun in General Odom's title associates what Buruma, Veterans for Peace, and others call "intelligence fixing" with what Odom –– prior to the controversy resulting from Ambassador Wilson's trip "intelligence-gathering" trip to Niger –– calls "fixing intelligence."</ref></blockquote>
* Finn, Ed. '']'', September 30, 2003. Accessed November 16, 2006.

* ]. . '']'', August 1, 2006. Accessed November 13, 2006.
=="Book Deal" for Valerie Wilson's memoir, "Fair Game"==
* Isikoff, Michael. What Karl Rove Told Time Magazine's Reporter". '']'' June 18, 2005. Accessed November 13, 2006.
In May 2006, the ] reported that Valerie Wilson agreed to a $2.5 million book deal with ], a division of ]. As reported initially, her ], currently entitled "]," has been scheduled for a fall 2007 release. Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, told the Times that the book would be Mrs. Wilson's "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."<ref name=Rich1> Motoko Rich, '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> Subsequently, the '']'' reported that the book deal fell through and that Mrs. Wilson was in exclusive negotiations with Simon and Schuster.<ref name=Rich2>Motoko Rich, '']'', ], ], accessed ], ].</ref> Ultimately, the Simon and Schuster deal was confirmed, though financial terms were not disclosed to the public and no publication date has yet been set.<ref name=Italie>Hillel Italie (AP), '']'' ], ], accessed ], ]. (Free registration required.)</ref> As David Corn writes in "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA," posted in the online version of '']'' on 6 September 2006:
* Isikoff, Michael, and ]. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006. {{ISBN|0-307-34681-1}}.
<blockquote>] left the CIA at the end of 2005. In July she and her husband filed a civil lawsuit against ], ] and ], alleging they had conspired to "discredit, punish and seek revenge against" the Wilsons. She is also writing a memoir. Her next battle may be with the agency––over how much of her story the ] will allow the outed spy to tell.<ref name=Corn>>David Corn, '']'' (web only) ], ], accessed ], ].</ref></blockquote>
* ], and Richard W. Stevenson, with David E. Sanger. {{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. '']'', July 15, 2005. Accessed November 16, 2006.

* ]. . '']'', April 6, 2005: A12.
==Valerie Plame movie==
* ]. . '']'', September 13, 2006. Accessed September 24, 2006.
Warner Brothers has developed a feature film project based on Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson to be released in August 2007.
* Novak, Robert. . Online posting. ''RealClearPolitics.com'' (blog), July 12, 2006. Accessed September 25, 2006.

* ], and ]. . '']'', October 4, 2003: A03.
==Notes==
* Smyth, Frank. . '']'' (International Freedom of Expression Exchange), June 30, 2005, updated July 1, 2005. Accessed September 24, 2006.
<div class="references-small">
* ]. What Did Patrick Fitzgerald Know, and When Did He Know It?" '']'', September 15, 2006, Editorial. Accessed November 20, 2006. (Reply by Corn, "Toensing and WSJ.")
<references/>
* ]. ''National Journal'', February 9, 2006. Accessed September 10, 2007.
</div>
* Waas, Murray S. '']'', April 6, 2005. Accessed September 10, 2007.
Sharon Stone and and Gwyneth Paltrow are under consideration for play Valerie Plame.
*Waas, Murray S., with research assistance by Thomas Lang. . '']'', February 12, 2004. Accessed September 25, 2006. (Web-exclusive feature article.)

* ]. ''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. {{ISBN|978-0-9791761-0-4}}.
==References==
* . '']'', June 18, 2004.
<div class="references-small">
* Wolf, Christopher. . Letter to the Editor. '']'', January 18, 2005: A16.
* . ''FindLaw.com'' ], ].
{{refend}}
* '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
* '']'' (], ]).
*]. '']'' (blog) ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––. ''DavidCorn.com'' (journalist's blog). ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (Reply to Toensing.)
*–––. '']'' (web only) ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––. '']'' (''Capital Games'' blog) ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*]. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (See reply by Johnson, "Valerie's Thinly-Veiled Cover.")
*–––. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (See reply by Johnson, "Valerie's Thinly-Veiled Cover.")
*Ensor, David, et al. '']'' on ]. ''].com'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*Finn, Ed. '']'' ], ], accessed ], ].
*]. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––, and ]. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006 (Sept. 8). ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
*] '']'' (blog) ], ]. ] status. He posts as a guest in AlterNet.]
*–––. '']'' (blog) ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (Reply to Crewdson.)
*], and Richard W. Stevenson, with David E. Sanger. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (Times Select subscription required for archived articles.)
*Leonnig, Carol D. '']'' ], ]: A12.
*Kincaid, Cliff. , '']''
*]. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*–––. Posted in ''RealClearPolitics.com'' (blog), ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*]. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*], and ]. '']'' ], ]: A03.
* ''LegalNewsTV.com'' ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*Smyth, Frank. '']'' (International Freedom of Expression Exchange) ], ], updated ], ]. Accessed ], ].
*Tagorda, Robert Garcia. ''Tagorda.com'' (blog) ], ]. Cites searches conducted at ] website: (1) and (2) .
*]. What Did Patrick Fitzgerald Know, and When Did He Know It?" '']'' ], ], editorial. Accessed ], ]. (Reply by Corn, "Toensing and WSJ.")
*], with research assistance by Thomas Lang. '']'' ], ]. Accessed ], ]. (Web-exclusive feature article.)
*Ward, Vicky. " '']'' January 2004. Accessed ], ]. (11 pages.)
*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. ISBN 0-979-17610-7 (10). ISBN 978-0979-17610-4 (13).
* '']'' ], ].
*]. ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed my Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir''. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004. Paperback ed., 2005. ISBN 0-7867-1551-0.
*–––. '']'' ], ]. Also accessible as ]. Accessed ], ].
*Wolf, Christopher. Letter to the Editor. '']'' ], ]: A16.
</div>
<!-- Some of the above ref. URLs provided by earlier editors may be broken and no longer function; updating of these links may still be needed. -->


==External links== ==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*
*
* Robert Ellmann, Paul Jennings (of the Anglo-Irish Bank), and others. The Boston accounting firm Burke Dennehy at the same address and phone number was in turn a front for Brewster Jennings.
*'''' compiled by ]; incl. interactive timeline of ''Main Events'' and "Key Players" (click on photo captioned "Plame"). * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314155507/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/cia.leak/index.html |date=March 14, 2008 |title=CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation }} compiled by ]; incl. interactive timeline of ''Main Events'' and "Key Players" (click on photo captioned "Plame").
*'''' compiled by '']'' (double-click on photo captioned "Ms. Wilson"). * '''' compiled by '']'' (double-click on photo captioned "Ms. Wilson").
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106105131/http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?Issue=Disclosure+of+CIA+Agent+Identity |date=January 6, 2007 |title=Investigations: Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity }} and {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829175419/http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1205 |date=August 29, 2007 |title=Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity: Hearing Examines Exposure of Covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's Identity }}. ] (Oversight Committee). March 16, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2007. Hyperlinked menu with streaming video of hearing and "Documents and Links" (box), featuring documents chart, {{cite web |url= http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316173308-19288.pdf |title= Disclosures of Valerie Plame Wilson's Classified CIA Employment |access-date= February 8, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090826112007/http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070316173308-19288.pdf |archive-date= August 26, 2009 |url-status=dead }}&nbsp;{{small|(35.9&nbsp;])}}.
*.
* United States Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel. * , ].
* ] Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, ] Government Reform Committee Minority, on the National Security Consequences of Disclosing the Identity of a Covert Intelligence Officer", with link to "Hearing Transcript". July 22, 2005. Accessed November 5, 2010.
* of the law firm , representing the Wilsons in their civil law suit.
* '''' at '']''.
* of three Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics conferences where she spied on Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Russia, and E. European countries involved in nuclear proliferation.
*

* , Associated Press, 11/4/10.
==See also==
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Latest revision as of 18:05, 10 January 2025

American writer, spy novelist and former CIA officer (born 1963) "Valerie Flame" redirects here. For the Childrens Hospital character, see Childrens Hospital#Cast and characters.

Valerie Plame
Plame in 2014
BornValerie Elise Plame
(1963-08-13) August 13, 1963 (age 61)
Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
Other namesValerie Plame Wilson
Education
Occupations
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
Todd Sesler ​ ​(m. 1987; div. 1989)
Joseph C. Wilson ​ ​(m. 1998; div. 2017)
Joseph Shepard ​(m. 2020)
Children2
Websitevalerieplame.com

Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy, novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer was leaked to and subsequently published by Robert Novak of The 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".

In the aftermath of the scandal, Richard Armitage in the U.S. Department of State was identified as one source of the information, and Scooter Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to investigators. After a failed appeal, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence and in 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned him. The individual responsible for leaking the information was never charged.

In collaboration with a ghostwriter, Plame wrote a memoir 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.

Plame was an unsuccessful candidate for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district in 2020, placing second behind Teresa Leger Fernandez in the June 2, 2020, primary.

Early life and education

Valerie Elise Plame was born on August 13, 1963, on Elmendorf Air Force Base, in Anchorage, Alaska, to Diane (née McClintock) and Samuel Plame III. Plame says that her paternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of a rabbi who emigrated from Ukraine; 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.

She graduated in 1981 from Lower Moreland High School, in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, and in 1985 from Pennsylvania State University, with a B.A. in advertising. While attending Penn State, she joined Pi Beta Phi sorority and worked for the business division of the Daily Collegian student newspaper.

Career

Presenting a lecture on her book Fair Game, at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 4, 2007.

After graduating from college and moving to Washington, D.C., Plame worked at a clothing store while awaiting results of her application to the CIA. She was accepted into the 1985–86 CIA officer training class. Special Counsel Patrick 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." Details about Plame's professional career are still classified, but it is documented that she worked for the CIA in a non-official cover (or NOC) capacity relating to counter-proliferation.

Plame served the CIA at times as a non-official cover, operating in Athens and Brussels. While using her own name, "Valerie Plame", her assignments required posing in various professional roles in order to gather intelligence more effectively. 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 a front company for certain investigations. 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 President George H. W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991. The matter of whether she actually had covert status is disputed. After the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the CIA sent her first to the London School of Economics and then the College of Europe, in Bruges, for master'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. Beginning in 1997, Plame's primary assignment was shifted to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

During this time, part of her work concerned the determination of the use of aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq. CIA analysts prior to the Iraq invasion were quoted by the White House as believing that Iraq was trying to acquire nuclear weapons and that these aluminum tubes could be used in a centrifuge for nuclear enrichment. David Corn and Michael Isikoff argued that the undercover work being done by Plame and her CIA colleagues in the Directorate of Central Intelligence Nonproliferation Center strongly contradicted such a claim.

"Plamegate"

Main articles: Plame affair, Plame affair grand jury investigation, and Plame affair criminal investigation

On July 14, 2003, Robert Novak, a journalist for The Washington Post, used information obtained from Richard Armitage, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby, to reveal Plame's identity as a CIA operative in his column. Legal documents published in the course of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, and Congressional investigations, established her classified employment as a covert officer for the CIA at the time when Novak's column was published in July 2003.

In his press conference on October 28, 2005, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald explained the necessity of secrecy about his grand 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 the indictment of then high-ranking Bush Administration official Scooter Libby as it pertained to her.

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. Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006, reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting with Judith Miller, reporter for The New York Times, to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002 classified National 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 ." 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 ambassador Joseph Wilson." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, then–National Security Advisor Condoleezza 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." 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 a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. 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." President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever had outed Plame.

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. 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 to Africa as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to call Karl Rove to the stand. Fitzgerald ultimately decided against pressing charges against Rove.

The five-count indictment of Libby included perjury (two counts), obstruction of justice (one count), and making false statements to federal investigators (two counts). There was, however, no count for disclosing classified information, i.e., Plame's status as a CIA operative.

Libby trial

Main article: United States v. Libby See also: Joseph C. Wilson § Reactions to the Libby trial and commutation

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, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine and probation, calling the sentence "excessive." In a subsequent press conference, on July 12, 2007, Bush noted, "...the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision." The Wilsons responded to the commutation in statements posted by their legal counsel, Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and on their own legal support website. President Donald Trump pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.

Wilson v. Cheney

Main article: Wilson v. Libby

On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Rove, Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other unnamed senior White House officials (to whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their alleged role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007; the Wilsons appealed. On August 12, 2008, in a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the dismissal. Melanie Sloan, of Citizens 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 the U.S. Supreme Court." 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."

On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.

House Oversight Committee hearing

On March 8, 2007, two days after the verdict in the Libby trial, Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the United 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."

On March 16, 2007, at these hearings about the disclosure, Waxman read a statement about Plame's CIA career that had been cleared by CIA 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 under Executive 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."
  • 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."
  • She did not select her husband for a CIA fact-finding trip to Niger, 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 no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority ."

Fair Game

Main article: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House

Plame's husband Joseph Wilson announced on March 6, 2007, that the couple had "signed a deal with Warner Bros of Hollywood 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. The feature film, a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions with a screenplay by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth to be based in part on Valerie Wilson's memoir Fair Game (contingent on CIA clearances) originally scheduled for release in August 2007, but ultimately published on October 22, 2007.

In May 2006, The New York Times reported that Valerie Wilson agreed to a $2.5 million book deal with Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random 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." Subsequently, the New York Times reported that the book deal fell through and that Plame was in exclusive negotiations with Simon & Schuster. Ultimately, Simon and Schuster publicly confirmed the book deal, though not the financial terms and, at first, no set publication date.

Valerie Plame and journalist Nina Burleigh, October 2016

On May 31, 2007, various news media reported that Simon and Schuster and Valerie Wilson were suing J. Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, and Michael 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 , by not allowing Plame to mention the dates that she served in the CIA." Judge Barbara S. Jones, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, 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 with Charlie Rose broadcast on The Charlie Rose Show, Valerie Wilson discussed many aspects relating to her memoir: the CIA 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.

Valerie Plame at Moravian College October 2008

The film, Fair Game, was released November 5, 2010, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It is based on two books, one written by Plame, and the other by her husband. The Washington Post editorial page, led by editor Fred Hiatt, a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, who blamed Wilson for Plame's identity being leaked, described the movie as being "full of distortions—not to mention outright inventions", while news reporters Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby at The Washington Post disagreed, saying "The movie holds up as a thoroughly researched and essentially accurate account—albeit with caveats".

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, titled Blowback, was released on October 1, 2013, by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of the Penguin Group.

Anti Trump fundraiser

In August 2017, Plame set up a GoFundMe fundraising page in an attempt to buy a majority interest in Twitter and kick U.S. President Donald Trump off the network. She launched her campaign because she believes that Donald Trump 'emboldens white supremacists' and encourages 'violence against journalists'.

Titled "Let's #BuyTwitter and #BanTrump", she set the campaign's goal to $1 billion; her campaign raised $88,000.

Antisemitism controversy

In September 2017, Plame tweeted a link to an article from The Unz Review website posted by Philip Giraldi, titled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars", repeating the title of the article in her tweet. 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." Amid criticism, Plame first defended her posts, replying on Twitter that "Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish." She also said that people should "read the entire article" without "biases", writing in defense of herself after the initial backlash: "read the entire article, just for a moment, to put aside your biases and think clearly."

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." 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". She had tweeted at least eight articles from the same website before, in which she previously retweeted links to conspiracy theories of 'dancing Israelis' being behind the 9/11 attacks.

Congressional run

Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in New Mexico § District 3

In May 2019, Plame announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district in the 2020 elections. The seat, in northern New Mexico, was being vacated by Democratic Representative Ben Ray Luján, who ran for Senate instead. She outspent her rivals with funding from outside her district. On June 2, 2020, she was defeated in the seven-way Democratic primary election by Teresa Leger Fernandez. Fernandez received 44,480 votes, Plame 25,775 votes, and Joseph L. Sanchez 12,292 votes.

Personal life

After graduating from Penn State in 1985, Plame married Todd Sesler; the marriage ended in divorce in 1989. In 1997, while working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Plame met former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. They were married on April 3, 1998. At the time they met, Wilson related in his memoir, he was separated from his second wife Jacqueline. They divorced after 12 years of marriage so that he could marry Plame. They had two children, twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000. Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017. Wilson died in 2019. Plame married Dr. Joseph Shepard, President of Western New Mexico University, in 2020.

Prior to the disclosure of her CIA job, the family lived in the Palisades, Washington, D.C. After she resigned from the CIA following the disclosure of her CIA position, in January 2006, the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Plame served as a consultant to the Santa 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.

Plame was involved in the 2016 presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In December of 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 .

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General and cited references

External links

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