The multiple sclerosis scandal was a political scandal that occurred in 2001 and 2002, on the eve and during the presidential election. It began when incumbent President Josiah Bartlet revealed to the country that he had been diagnosed eight years earlier with a relapsing/remitting course of multiple sclerosis, a severe debilitating illness, and that he had not disclosed it during his campaign for the presidency in 1998. The scandal, often politically motivated during an election year, resulted in a terminated special investigator, and a congressional investigation to determine whether the president had perpetrated a fraud against the public or even launched a massive conspiracy to win a presidential election.