Ex-CIA spy reveals why she thinks Trump pardoned Dick Cheney's chief

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame is running for Congress for the district that covers Santa Fe and northern New Mexico. She told MSNBC Sunday that she doesn't think there was any alliance that President Donald Trump had to Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Scooter Libby, who he pardoned.

MSNBC's Kasie Hunt asked Plame about Trump's motivations, which Plame claimed were purely political.

"I think it has nothing to do with me," she said. "It has nothing to do with Scooter Libby. It had, I believe, everything to do with Trump showing his cronies, 'Look, you take care of me, I'll take care of you.' I'm pretty sure Trump really has no idea exactly who Scooter Libby is or why he should care, but he understood enough for a small group of people, it was a very strong signal."

The Congressional seat is an open one as Rep. Ben Luján (D-NM) leaves to run for the U.S. Senate.

"What drives you to go — want to go become to Washington after what you experienced in the context of the Bush administration? I just have to ask," asked Hunt, pointedly.

"Well, this is my home, and maybe it sounds a little corny, but I really look forward to the opportunity of perhaps serving my country again," Plame confessed. "The last time it got curtailed before I was quite ready, and this opportunity opened up."

She went on to say that if she didn't run, she would regret it.

Plame lived was based out of Virginia when she was outed by Libby as a CIA agent. It virtually destroyed Plame's ability to serve overseas with any kind of anonymity. She and her family escaped to New Mexico to raise her children.

Watch the interview below: