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I have found it in an article. Since it may be related to politics, instead of providing with an actual quote of context, let me re-phrase it with my own words:

John Smith, a famous politician, has been caught on a certain kind of public offense. This person has committed similar offenses in the past.
The article is titled, "A new Smithgate".

What is the meaning of gate here?

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    This link probably answers your question, and it gives plenty of other examples as well.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 14:51

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According to my research just now (I do not pretend to have known all of these big words beforehand, but OP's question was so interesting that I did some googling), the linguistic term for this type of morphology (which means "the patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation, and composition") is full word suffix: "word types...formed on newly minted suffix-like formatives which are actually freely occurring full words". Formative in this grammatical context means "a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word." (Source: Morphologie / Morphology. 1. Halbband edited by Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan, p. 968)

As other responders have pointed out (without using such high-falutin' linguistic terminology), the suffix -gate has, since the Richard Nixon/Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, come to mean "official scandal" and there are an uncountable number of instances of such derivations: Travelgate, Monicagate, Filegate, etc.

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The word "gate" here is largely irrelevant. The use of "Smithgate" as you say, refers back to the scandal where he was involved with rape allegations.

The actual word "Smithgate" is derived from the famous "Watergate" scandal involving then-US President Richard Nixon. It was called the "Watergate" scandal after the name of the office complex where the events transpired.

Read more here

So basically, "Watergate" is a placename, and "Smithgate" is a satirical reference as a way of showing the significance of the events involving John Smith.

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    Such terms are not necessarily--nor are they usually--satirical. But they are derivative.
    – Shawn Mooney
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 14:07
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Smithgate is an invented word, which recalls the Watergate scandal, the political scandal that involved U.S. President Nixon. Watergate is the name of the building where the headquarters of the Democratic Party were at that time (and maybe they are still there).

In this case, Smithgate just means a scandal involving John Smith.

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  • We don't say "USA President Nixon"; we say "the American President, Richard Nixon," "the President of the United States, Richard Nixon" or most naturally "President Nixon". It is precisely correct to say that "Watergate" refers to the location of the Democratic Party's headquarters, but more relevantly--and more culturally--"Watergate" has come to refer to the Nixon scandal itself.
    – Shawn Mooney
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 14:08
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    @ShawnMooney Not so precisely correct as all that. "Watergate" is the name of the building in which the Democratic National Committee's HQ was located, but it refers to a) the burglary of that office by agents of the Committee to Re-Elect the President and b) efforts to cover up the connection of the burglars with CRP and senior staff at the White House.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Feb 22, 2013 at 22:41

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