Sherrill campaign slams Trump admin for releasing military records to Ciattarelli ally

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill's gubernatorial campaign slammed the Trump administration for releasing military records to an ally of Jack Ciattarelli, her Republican rival in the New Jersey governor's race.

“The Trump administration blatantly violated federal law by releasing Mikie Sherrill’s unredacted personal military records to an agent of the Ciattarelli campaign — which were then distributed and weaponized by Jack Ciattarelli,” Sherrill campaign spokesperson Sean Higgins said in a statement on Thursday, The Hill reported. “This is a breathtaking, disturbing leak that must be thoroughly investigated.”

Sherrill also released a statement, saying, “Jack Ciattarelli continues to try and use any avenue he can to execute the MAGA playbook of smearing military service. Now, his latest attempt is to go after a 30-year-old widely reported incident when I was an undergraduate at the Naval Academy.”

“I didn’t turn in some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk, but graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for nearly ten years with the highest level of distinction and honor,” she continued. “That Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration are illegally weaponizing my records for political gain is a violation of anyone who has ever served our country. No veteran’s record is safe.”

Ciattarelli on Thursday shared a New Jersey Globe article about Sherrill being prohibited from walking with her 1994 class at the U.S. Naval Academy commencement ceremony as a punishment connected to a cheating scandal that implicated about 130 midshipmen.

"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," Ciattarelli posted on X.

"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."

National Archives and Records Administration’s acting director of congressional affairs, Grace McCaffrey, said that the agency's National Personnel Records Center released Sherrill’s military records to Ciattarelli’s ally, Nicholas De Gregorio, “in error.”

De Gregorio submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to NPRC, and the “technician that responded to the request did not follow NPRC’s standard operating procedures,” McCaffrey said.  

“The technician should have extracted and released from the record only FOIA-releasable information. The technician should NOT have released the entire record,” she added.

McCaffrey said that officials found out about the data breach on Monday, and NARA contacted Sherrill’s congressional office to remedy the situation.

The largely unredacted military records included Sherrill’s Social Security number, performance evaluation, and addresses for her and her parents, among other personal information.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he supports a probe into how the military records were leaked, calling Sherrill “a patriot and a hero.”

“It’s outrageous that Donald Trump and his administration, and political hacks connected to them, continue to violate the law,” Jeffries said. “And they will be held accountable. The statute of limitations — I remind all of the sycophants out there — is five years. This Justice Department will be long gone before the statute of limitations expires.”