But long before that extraordinary event was televised on Dateline and Good Morning America, AVMT employee Tom Gosinski become concerned about McCain's use of drugs and spoke to the DEA. When he discovered in January, 1993, that Cindy McCain had been buying drugs in his name, he complained and was fired. Gosinski filed a wrongful termination suit, but did not make the issue public until John McCain's attorney John Dowd asked the Maricopa County attorney Richard Romley, a political ally of McCain, to investigate Gosinski for extortion.Salon.com: Cindy McCain ... outed for drug addiction (October 18, 1999)

On September 10, 2008, Tom Gosinski released to the press hundreds of documents from the extortion investigation and his wrongful termination lawsuit, as well as extensive pages from his work diary from the AVMT. In those documents, he alleges that McCain used his political clout to blackball him from further employment in the Republican Party, and that McCain must have been aware of Cindy McCain's drug use.The Raw Story: ... alleges McCain hid wife's drug abuse(September 11, 2008)