What is "debategate"

Debategate or briefing-gate was a political scandal affecting the administration of Ronald Reagan; it took place in the final days of the 1980 presidential election. Reagan's team had somehow acquired President Jimmy Carter's briefing papers he used in preparation for the October 28, 1980 debate with Reagan. The briefing papers were never specified to be vital strategy memos or just routine position papers. This leak of campaign papers was not divulged to the public until late June 1983, after Laurence Barrett published Gambling With History: Reagan in the White House, an in-depth account of the Reagan administration's first two years.