When then-candidate Ronald Reagan was studying up for a presidential debate with President Jimmy Carter in October 1980, he and his staff had the advantage of having in hand the very briefing book being used by Carter to prepare for the same encounter. The book had apparently been delivered by a still unidentified Reagan "mole" who had access to the Carter White House.

The revelation of this 2½-year-old espionage came from a mere two-paragraph mention in a 511-page book on Reagan by Time correspondent Laurence I. Barrett. The rest of the press was even less interested than Barrett in the information until former Carter presidential secretary Jody Powell began urging closer scrutiny.

A Democratic congressional investigation into the matter helped to arouse the press and generate a summer frenzy in 1983.