Ronald Reagan came to power through illegitimate means

[Ryan Carboni]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_research
In preparation for Ronald Reagan’s debate with President Jimmy Carter
in the presidential race 1980, Reagan’s campaign staff acquired under
mysterious circumstances a 200-page briefing book, including
information on Carter’s strategy, which staffers David Stockman and
David Gergen had used to prepare Reagan. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Justice Department investigated to see how the
information had been obtained by the Reagan camp. Two law professors
filed suit in federal district court in Washington to request a
special investigation, based on the 1978 Ethics in Government Act.
Carter’s staff believed the book to have been stolen from the White
House, but the inquiry did not uncover any credible evidence that any
law had been violated. The House of Representatives conducted its own
investigation, and concluded in a 2,314-page report that the Reagan
staff had two copies of the book, one from Reagan’s campaign director
William J. Casey, future head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
James Baker attributed the acquisition of the documents to Casey, who
claimed to know nothing about them, and an analysis of Carter campaign
documents found in the “Afghanistan” files of Reagan aide David Gergen
indicated they came from three White House offices: the National
Security Council, Vice President Walter Mondale and Domestic Adviser
Stuart Eizenstat. Many years afterward, Carter himself stated in a PBS
interview that the book had been taken by columnist George Will, but
Will denied it, calling Carter "a recidivist liar."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory
March 1980: Jamshid Hashimi, international arms dealer, is visited by
William Casey at Washington's Mayflower Hotel, who asks that a meeting
be arranged with "someone in Iran who had authority to deal on the
hostages".