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Valerie Elise Plame Wilson (born April 8, 1963, in Binghamton, New York) is an American writer, novelist, and former CIA covert operations officer. Raised in a military family, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature. Plame served nearly two decades in the CIA, primarily in undercover counter-proliferation roles aimed at preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Operating under non-official cover, she posed as an energy consultant for Brewster Jennings & Associates, a CIA front company.
In 2003 her classified identity was leaked to the media by officials in the George W. Bush administration, exposing her covert role and igniting the Plame affair. The disclosure, widely viewed as retaliation against her husband, diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had publicly challenged the administration's claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ended Plame's CIA career. It prompted a criminal investigation by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, which culminated in the 2007 conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and obstruction of justice; Libby's sentence was later commuted by President Bush and he was pardoned by President Trump in 2018.
Plame and Wilson married in 1998, had two children, and divorced in 2017. She authored the 2007 memoir Fair Game recounting her experience, which inspired the 2010 film of the same name starring Naomi Watts. Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Plame continues advocacy against nuclear proliferation through writing and public speaking, serves on the board of the nonprofit Ploughshares Fund, and has co-founded a sustainable goods company.