WASHINGTON — Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame last fall gave a campaign contribution to go toward an anti-Bush fund-raising concert starring Bruce Springsteen, it was revealed Tuesday night. It's the first revelation that Plame participated in anti-Bush political activity while working for the CIA. | Other than sending her husband to Niger |
The $372 donation to the anti-Bush group America Coming Together, first reported by Time magazine's Web site, was made in Plame's married name of Valerie E. Wilson and covered two tickets. The Federal Election Commission record lists her occupation as "retired" even though she's still a CIA staffer. Under employer it says: "N.A." | Naughty, naughty, lying to the Feds like that. Just ask Martha. |
A special prosecutor is probing whether Plame's CIA identity was leaked to retaliate against her husband, Joseph Wilson, for attacking President Bush's Iraq policy after he went on an Iraq-linked CIA mission arranged by his wife.
Wilson — who played an active role in Democrat John Kerry's losing 2004 presidential campaign — said the anti-Bush concert was "great" and told Time that his wife "doesn't recall listing herself as retired."
CIA rules allow campaign contributions, but the fact that Plame gave money to the anti-Bush effort is likely to raise eyebrows. Federal rules require a political-action committee to ask all donors to list their employers. "You don't have to provide it, but if you do, you shouldn't provide false information on those forms — like saying you're retired if you're not," said Larry Noble of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. America Coming Together is one of the anti-Bush activist groups bankrolled by Bush-opposing billionaire George Soros. He gave the group around $10 million.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe has raised questions about whether top Bush aides such as Karl Rove played a role in outing Plame. Rove has said he relayed her role in arranging her husband's CIA trip, but didn't know she was undercover. White House officials say Rove was seeking to discredit Wilson's attacks on Bush by noting that Wilson only got picked for the CIA mission because of his wife.
A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report found that Plame did arrange her husband's trip even though he repeatedly denied it. |