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Ned Price: Political Contributions to Democrats Didn't Affect Decision to Quit CIA

February 22, 2017

Edward Price, who served as a CIA analyst since 2006 before quitting this year, was challenged by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday about his political contributions to Democrats.

Price resigned from the CIA last week and wrote in the Washington Post that he could not "in good faith serve this [Trump] administration as an intelligence professional." He claims that his decision to quit is not political and that he "would have been proud to again work under a Republican administration."

Critics have raised questions, however, over reports on Price's contributions to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016.

"Your critics already pointing out, you probably know this already, that you did make political contributions back in August to the Hillary for America campaign, $2,700, to the DNC, $2,300," Blitzer said to Price. "You say your decision wasn't about politics, but do the political contributions say otherwise?"

Price, a registered Democrat, said that is not the case, arguing that, as a member of the intelligence community, he has "never spoken about [his] personal views."

"That is not my right," Price said. "It is not my role."

He said that since he was governed by the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from participating in various types of political activity, it was legal for him to give to candidates who "shared [his] values."

"And I thought that Secretary Clinton did," Price said.