New Jersey’s closely-watched gubernatorial race was jolted Thursday after the National Archives blamed a technician’s mistake for the release of Congresswoman and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill’s unredacted military records.
Sherrill and some Democratic allies are calling for an investigation, saying the release was no mistake but an extension of President Donald Trump’s effort to weaponize the federal government against his political opponents.
Responding to a routine records request, the National Archives released Sherrill’s unredacted military records that show she had an unblemished career in the Navy, including a 1991 medal for saving the life of a fellow classmate. But the records contained unredacted information such as Sherrill’s Social Security number.
“Well, it’s really scary in these times, of course, to have all that private information in the public… But I think what this shows too, is that my opponent and the Trump administration will stop at nothing. They will completely weaponize the federal government to achieve what they want,” Sherrill said Friday on MSNBC.
Asked if she suspects anything “nefarious,” she said, “I more than suspect.”
ABC News has reached out to the White House about Sherrill’s claims she’s being targeted by the administration.
ABC News has not obtained or viewed the records.
CBS News, which first reported on the records release, said that it had been investigating if Sherrill was involved in a scandal in 1994 where more than 130 Midshipmen were implicated in a cheating scandal. Sherrill was not involved but, because she did not report her classmates, she was not permitted to walk at graduation.
Sherrill said this was a 30-year-old widely reported incident that does not reflect on her military service. Her campaign has not provided other documentation about the incident, but other records have shown that her graduation date and commission date were identical, indicating the Navy did not have an issue with her graduating.
Her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, said her admission raises concerns.
“Today’s admission by Congresswoman Sherrill that she was implicated in, and punished for, her involvement in the largest cheating and honor code scandal in the history of the United States Navy is both stunning and deeply disturbing,” Ciatterelli’s campaign said in a statement on Thursday.
“For eight years, Mikie Sherrill has built her entire political brand around her time at the Naval Academy and in the Navy, all the while concealing her involvement in the scandal and her punishment. The people of New Jersey deserve complete and total transparency,” Ciatterelli’s campaign said.
CBS News reported that the request came from Ciattarelli ally Nicholas De Gregorio, who was tasked with doing so by political operative Chris Russell.
Russell, on Thursday, pointed to the National Archives’ apology and said the request error came in response to documents not related to the cheating scandal.
“FACT: The National Archives provided documents in response to a legitimate and perfectly legal FOIA request. Documents, btw, that had NOTHING to do with the cheating scandal,” Russell wrote on X on Thursday.
“The National Archives then apologized to the requestor and took full responsibility for their error. Now… it’s time for Rep. Sherrill to come clean and authorize release of all of her records.”
The National Archives, on its end, admitted in a letter, shared by the Sherrill campaign, it “should have provided only information that is releasable to the public under the FOIA. Unfortunately, however, in responding to the request, we released the comprehensive record, including personal information such as your social security number and date of birth … We have already reached out to the requester, Nicholas De Gregorio, and asked that he not further disseminate the information that was released to him in error.”
ABC News has reached out to the National Archives for comment on the record release.
The Sherrill campaign said it is considering legal action, and that counsel for Sherrill has already sent letters to the National Archives, Ciattarelli campaign, Russell, and De Gregorio.
“We are calling on Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration to immediately stop illegally distributing Mikie Sherrill’s military files, with protected personal information like her Social Security Number, and we will explore appropriate legal action,” campaign spokesperson Sean Higgins said in a statement on Thursday.
“To have a guy I’m running against who will stop at nothing to illegally obtain records, it’s beyond the pale,” Sherrill said at an event on Thursday.
The records request, according to CBS News, was done through a routine and legal procedure and recognized the request would redact personal information.
Ciatterelli, in a statement Friday, called for his Sherrill to share more documents from her time in the Naval Academy.
“The real issue at hand is exactly why Congresswoman Sherrill was barred from walking at her graduation? What specific honor concept violations was she punished for… The only way to determine any of these answers is through her authorizing full and immediate release of all academic, disciplinary, and investigatory records related to her time at the Academy and the scandal itself,” he wrote.
House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Thursday called for a criminal investigation.
“Mikie Sherrill is a patriot and a hero who has served this country, graduated from the naval academy, helicopter pilot, tours of duty in dangerous places overseas and the Middle East, came home, served as a federal prosecutor, is a supermom and a great public servant and a member of Congress,” Jeffries said. “It is outrageous that Donald Trump and his administration and political hacks connected to them continue to violate the law and they will be held accountable.”
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