“...scandal, valerie plame...”
IIRC, that wasn’t even a scandal, but technically fake news. Dems tried to push the story that she was some hotshot undercover operative when, truthfully, she was a secretary or something.
That’s what I recall. Stories of her NOC status were either false or very greatly exaggerated.
This was just a concoction to deflect from the real duplicity by her former-ambassador husband, Joe Plame, IIRC.