New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill Condemns Release of Unredacted Naval Records, Including Social Security Number

The Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, is ripping into President Trump and her gubernatorial rival after the National Archives shared her unredacted military records with her opponent’s ally — including her Social Security number and other personal information — possibly in violation of federal privacy law. Jack Ciattarelli and his allies have been trying to tie Ms. Sherrill to a 1994 cheating scandal at the Naval Academy, though both Ms. Sherrill and the academy say she was in no way involved. The unredacted records were disclosed when a GOP operative was trying to dig up information, according to a report from CBS News. The race has narrowed in recent weeks, and polling released from Emerson on Thursday morning shows Ms. Sherrill and Mr. Ciattarelli tied, with each candidate taking 43 percent of the vote. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1994, Ms. Sherrill served for nine years, primarily as a Navy helicopter pilot. “This is an illegal and dangerous weaponization of the federal government,” Ms. Sherrill wrote in a post on X on Thursday. The records reportedly included not only her Social Security number, but her parents’ home address, information about life insurance, and a “nondisclosure agreement between her and the U.S. government to safeguard classified information.”“That [Mr. Ciattarelli] and the Trump [administration] are breaking the law and exposing private records for political gain is a violation of anyone who has ever served. No veteran’s record is safe,” she said in her statement. According to the report, her record was released to an ally of Mr. Ciattarelli by the National Personnel Records Center, which is a part of the National Archives that stores and maintains the records of all military servicemen and women. New Jersey Republicans who believe they can elect a GOP governor this year for the first time since 2013 due to the high cost of living have been digging into Ms. Sherrill’s past. The scandal during her senior year involved more than 100 midshipmen cheating on an engineering exam. The GOP has been trying to tie Ms. Sherrill to the scandal because she did not walk at graduation and is not featured in the academy yearbook, leading some to believe that she may have been one of those who cheated, though both Ms. Sherrill and the Naval Academy have said that that is not the case. In a statement to the outlet, Ms. Sherrill says she did not walk across the stage because she refused to snitch on classmates. The academy confirmed that she graduated in good standing. “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,” Ms. Sherrill told the New Jersey Globe on Thursday.The political ally of Mr. Ciattarelli to whom the records were released, Nick De Gregorio, was a Republican candidate for Congress in northern New Jersey’s Fifth District in the 2022 midterm elections. He narrowly lost the GOP primary, though that summer, he shared a photo on Facebook of himself and Mr. Ciattarelli at one of his own congressional campaign events. According to public campaign finance records, Mr. De Gregorio donated $2,500 to Mr. Ciattarelli’s gubernatorial campaign during the primary. He is not listed as a donor to the general election race, however. Mr. De Gregorio, in a statement to CBS News, said he works as a Republican consultant in New Jersey and made the decision to file a Freedom of Information Act request for Ms. Sherrill’s records over the summer. He says he did not request any kind of unredacted version of the records, and was “shocked” and “disgusted” that personal details like her Social Security number would be so readily available. Mr. De Gregorio said he turned the records over to the Ciattarelli campaign after getting his hands on the documents. The White House, in a comment to CBS News, referred the outlet to the National Archives. The National Personnel Records Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the New York Sun. The agency told CBS News, however, that the unredacted records were sent in error and that they were investigating the incident. The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, echoed Ms. Sherrill’s outrage. “I support a criminal investigation into the unauthorized and illegal release of Mikie Sherrill’s records,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters at a press conference Thursday. “Mikie Sherrill is a patriot and a hero who has served this country.”“It’s outrageous that Donald Trump and his administration, and political hacks connected to them, continue to violate the law,” he added. “They will be held accountable.”

New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill Condemns Release of Unredacted Naval Records, Including Social Security Number

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