Valerie Plame facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Valerie Plame
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Plame in 2014
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| Born |
Valerie Elise Plame
August 13, 1963 Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
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| Other names | Valerie Plame Wilson |
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| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Todd Sesler
(m. 1987; div. 1989)Joseph Shepard
(m. 2020) |
| Children | 2 |
Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer and former officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She is also a novelist. In 2003, her secret identity as a CIA officer was revealed to the public. This event became known as the "Plame affair" or the CIA leak scandal. A journalist named Robert Novak published her identity in The Washington Post. Valerie Plame later said that this time was very shocking and difficult for her.
After her identity was revealed, it was found that Richard Armitage from the U.S. Department of State was one source of the information. Scooter Libby, who worked for Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty of lying to investigators about the leak. President George W. Bush later reduced Libby's punishment, and President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2018. No one was ever charged for actually leaking Valerie Plame's identity.
Valerie Plame wrote a book about her career and what happened when her identity was revealed. She has also written spy novels. A movie called Fair Game was made in 2010. It was based on books written by her and her husband. In 2020, Plame ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in New Mexico but did not win.
Contents
Early Life and School
Valerie Elise Plame was born on August 13, 1963. She was born at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. Her parents were Diane and Samuel Plame III. Valerie Plame has said that her grandfather on her father's side was Jewish. He was the son of a rabbi who came from Ukraine. She was raised Protestant and did not know her grandfather was Jewish until she was an adult.
She finished high school in 1981. In 1985, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University. She earned a degree in advertising. While at Penn State, she was part of a sorority called Pi Beta Phi. She also worked for the business part of the student newspaper, Daily Collegian.
Her Career
After college, Valerie Plame moved to Washington, D.C.. She worked at a clothing store while waiting to hear back from the CIA. She was accepted into the CIA officer training program in 1985.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald confirmed that Plame was a CIA officer from 2002 to 2003. Her connection to the CIA was a secret during that time. Many details about her work are still classified, meaning they are not public. However, it is known that she worked for the CIA in a secret role. Her job involved preventing the spread of dangerous weapons.
Plame worked for the CIA in places like Athens and Brussels. She used her real name, "Valerie Plame," but pretended to have other jobs to gather information. For example, she worked as a junior consular officer in Athens in the early 1990s. Later, she was an energy analyst for a company called "Brewster Jennings & Associates." The CIA later said this company was a fake company used for investigations.
In 1991, after the Persian Gulf War, the CIA sent her to study in London and then in Bruges. She earned two master's degrees. After her studies, she stayed in Brussels. There, she continued her secret work as an "energy consultant" for Brewster-Jennings. From 1997, Plame's main job was at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
During this time, part of her work involved looking into "aluminum tubes" bought by Iraq. Before the Iraq invasion, the White House said that CIA experts believed Iraq was trying to get nuclear weapons. They thought these tubes could be used to make a centrifuge for enriching nuclear material. Some journalists later said that Plame's secret work showed this claim was not true.
The "Plame Affair"
On July 14, 2003, journalist Robert Novak published an article that revealed Valerie Plame was a CIA officer. He got this information from people like Richard Armitage, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby. Legal documents later showed that she was indeed a secret CIA officer when Novak's article came out.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald led an investigation into how Plame's identity was revealed. In 2005, Scooter Libby, a high-ranking official in the Bush Administration, was charged with lying to investigators. Fitzgerald explained that it was important to keep the investigation secret because Valerie Wilson's secret identity had been exposed.
Court documents later showed that Libby said he was allowed to share secret information with a reporter. This information was meant to challenge claims made by Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. President Bush had said he would fire anyone who revealed Plame's identity.
Libby's lawyers argued that officials were not focused on Valerie Plame when they tried to respond to her husband's claims. They said Libby did not intend to reveal her identity. The prosecutor decided not to charge Karl Rove. Libby was charged with lying and obstructing justice, but not for revealing classified information.
Libby's Trial and Pardon
On March 6, 2007, Scooter Libby was found guilty of obstructing justice, making false statements, and two counts of perjury. He was not charged with revealing Plame's CIA status. His punishment included a fine and a prison sentence. However, on July 2, 2007, President George W. Bush reduced Libby's prison sentence. He called the sentence "excessive." Valerie Plame and her husband were very upset by this decision. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby.
Congressional Hearing
On March 16, 2007, Valerie Plame testified before a committee in the United States House of Representatives. The committee wanted to know if White House officials had properly protected her identity.
At the hearing, the committee chairman read a statement about Plame's CIA career. This statement was approved by the CIA director. It confirmed that she was working secretly and that her job status was classified information. This meant it was illegal to reveal it.
Valerie Plame said that her name and identity were "carelessly and recklessly abused" by high-ranking government officials. She believed this happened for "purely political reasons." She also said that after her identity was exposed, she could no longer do her highly trained work for the CIA. She clarified that she did not choose her husband for a CIA trip to Niger. An officer senior to her chose him and asked her to check if he would go.
The Movie Fair Game
Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, announced in 2007 that they had made a deal with Warner Bros. to help with a movie. The movie would be about their lives and the CIA leak scandal. The film, called Fair Game, was released on November 5, 2010. It starred Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as her husband. The movie was based on books written by both of them.
Valerie Plame also had a book deal for her memoir, also titled Fair Game. However, the CIA tried to stop her from including specific dates she worked for them. A judge ruled in favor of the CIA. So, her book could not include the exact dates she worked there.
In 2011, it was announced that Valerie Plame would write a series of spy novels with another writer. The first book in the series, called Blowback, was released in 2013.
Anti-Trump Fundraiser
In August 2017, Valerie Plame started an online fundraiser. She wanted to raise money to buy a large share of Twitter. Her goal was to get U.S. President Donald Trump removed from the social media platform. She believed that Donald Trump encouraged "white supremacists" and "violence against journalists." She aimed to raise $1 billion, but her campaign raised about $88,000.
Running for Congress
In May 2019, Valerie Plame announced she would run for the United States House of Representatives in New Mexico. The current representative was leaving the seat. She spent more money than her rivals, getting funds from outside her area. On June 2, 2020, she lost in the primary election to Teresa Leger Fernandez.
Personal Life
Valerie Plame married Todd Sesler in 1985, but they divorced in 1989. In 1997, while working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), she met former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. They married on April 3, 1998. They had twin children, Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000. Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017. Joseph Wilson passed away in 2019. In 2020, Valerie Plame married Dr. Joseph Shepard, who is the President of Western New Mexico University.
Before her CIA job was revealed, her family lived in the Palisades, Washington, D.C.. After she left the CIA in 2006, the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There, Plame worked as a consultant for the Santa Fe Institute until 2016. In 2011, she mentioned that she and Wilson had received threats while living in the D.C. area. She said New Mexico was a much calmer place.
Valerie Plame was involved in the 2016 presidential campaign for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
In December 2024, it was reported that Plame's husband was leaving his job as WNMU president. This was part of a deal that included a large payment. He and university leaders were connected to claims of wasteful spending. Valerie Plame was not a university employee, but she was given a university credit card. She used it to buy thousands of dollars worth of furniture and home items.
See also
In Spanish: Valerie Plame para niños
