Season 3: 2001–2002 Cast: Rob Low e, Stockar d Chann ing, Dulé Hill , Allison Janney, Ja nel Moloney , Richard Schiff, J ohn Spence r, Bradl ey Whit ford and Martin Shee n The t hird sea son, which covers the administ ration&am p;#39;s third a nd fourth years in office, s tarts o ff with Bartlet  announcing h is inten tion to run for reelection and is heavily de voted to the upcoming  presiden tial election . Other pro minent plotlin es includ e Congressio nal inv estigations into whethe r Bartlet commi tted ele ctoral fraud by concealing his MS,  a death threat agains t C.J. an d the e nsuing  relationshi p she develops  with a Secre t Service  agent assi gned to her,  the Qum ari defense min ister Abdul  Shareef plot ting terroris t attacks against the U S, and a  troublin g meeti ng between Tob y and the  President  that leaves Ba rtlet with  a bout of i nsomnia in &a mp;quot;Ni ght Five.& quot; The  season final e, "P osse Co mitatus " clos es several of t hese st orylines as Bartlet  meets his  opponent in the elect ions and r eaffirms his  commitment to beat him. T he episode end s with the pres ident fina lly decidin g to order Shar eef&# 39;s assas sinatio n (a legall y questiona ble act) a nd C.J.&# 39;s agen t's mu rder, just a fter the man threaten ing C.J. was c aught. Fro m a critical perspectiv e, series creator A aron Sorkin  acknowledged in October  2002 that th e terrorism -related p lots desi gned to keep the ser ies rel evant after  the rea l-life 9/11 attacks we re awkward a t times, saying &q uot;from week to week , you fel t like you wer e writing the show hand cuffed, a little  bit. I didn&amp ;#39;t know how to writ e it anymo re. It was a co nstant search f or what I  wasn&amp ;#39;t do ing tha t used to mak e the s how work. [. ..] Maybe th ere was  a way to make it wo rk; there pr obably was. I wasn 't abl e to find it i n twenty-two ep isodes.&quo t; [1] Nonethe less, the show went o n to win its  third &am p;quot;Outst anding D rama&am p;quot; Emmy i n a row.！