Jeffrey King was working as a freelance reporter for the Banner in April 2013 when he uncovered a bombshell of a story: the CIA was conducting covert intelligence gathering operations, otherwise known as black ops, even though the president had outlawed such missions. Jeffrey reported that Dorian Lord, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, had been tipped off about the operations but kept quiet. Dorian, meanwhile, insisted that she had passed on the information to the heads of the Senate intelligence committee, and they were responsible for the cover up. As Jeffrey continued to dig deeper into the story, he caught up with old friends Matthew Buchanan and Danielle Manning, who attended the same London prep school as Jeffrey. Jeffrey and Matthew moved in together and soon were joined by Dani.

As Jeffrey adjusted to life in Llanview, he worked closely with Viki to bring the Banner online and befriended fellow Banner employee and mother of Matthew's child Destiny Evans. With Matthew's consent, Jeffrey started dating Destiny and he asked her to be his date to the "Man of the Year" gala. As the gala neared, Jeffrey looked forward to the arrival of the keynote speaker, philanthropist Carl Peterson. Jeffrey had been raised by Carl and during Carl's visit; the men discussed how Jeffrey had intentionally befriended Matthew in boarding school years ago. Carl was impressed with the connections Jeffrey had made with the Buchanan family and with Viki. He assured Jeffrey that although the plans with Victor Lord, Jr. had hit a snag, Carl's sister Allison Perkins had Victor secured. Carl then instructed Jeffrey to tamper with Clint Buchanan's medication and Jeffrey complied.