Ciattarelli Pressures Sherrill To ‘Come Clean’ On Naval Academy Cheating Scandal

The high-stakes New Jersey governor’s race, one of only two in the nation this year, was rocked Friday after revelations that Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee, was barred from attending her 1994 Naval Academy graduation ceremony due to her connection to a cheating scandal, Fox News reported Friday.

The report, which originally surfaced Thursday, also exposed that a federal agency mistakenly gave much of Sherrill’s confidential military records to an ally of Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli.

Senior Democrats in Washington immediately demanded an investigation, warning that the Trump administration may have weaponized government resources against political opponents.

Ciattarelli, however, seized on the revelations, questioning Sherrill’s past. Sherrill, who graduated from the Naval Academy and later flew helicopters in combat, was blocked from walking at graduation for failing to report classmates who cheated on an exam, according to the documents.

The Republican contender is now urging Sherrill to release her disciplinary file.

“What we learned today is that she was part of it in some way, shape or form. Come clean, release the records. Tell us what’s in your disciplinary records. I think the people of New Jersey deserve that,” Ciattarelli said during a Thursday night appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

The accusations fly as polling shows the race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is neck-and-neck in the solidly blue state.

On the trail, Sherrill accused Ciattarelli of crossing a line. “To have a guy I’m running against, it will stop at nothing, it will stop at nothing, who will illegally obtain records. It’s just beyond the pale,” she told supporters in Plainfield on Thursday night.

The uproar intensified when CBS News reported that the National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives, mistakenly released Sherrill’s unredacted military records, including her Social Security number, to Ciattarelli’s allies.

The National Archives later sent Sherrill a letter apologizing, attributing the breach to an employee error while processing a legal request.

Sherrill’s campaign responded by sending cease-and-desist letters to the Archives, Ciattarelli’s campaign, his strategist Chris Russell, and Nicholas De Gregorio, whom the campaign described as “an agent of the campaign working at the direction of” Russell. CBS News confirmed that De Gregorio was the recipient of the files.

“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,” campaign spokesperson Sean Higgins charged.

Her team added, “This is a breathtaking, disturbing leak that must be thoroughly investigated. Once again, the Trump administration is targeting political opponents with an absolute disregard for the law, this time in concert with the Ciattarelli campaign.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he supports a criminal investigation into the unauthorized release. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, along with Sherrill’s fellow New Jersey House Democrats, also demanded accountability.

Republicans in Congress had previously investigated similar improper disclosures of GOP lawmakers’ records, including those of Reps. Don Bacon and Zach Nunn.

At nearly the same moment the CBS report went live, the New Jersey Globe published a story noting that Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation because of the cheating scandal, which in the 1990s triggered a congressional probe.

Ciattarelli’s campaign manager Eric Alpert said the “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.”

“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,” Alpert continued.

Sherrill, while never accused of cheating herself, explained Thursday night: “There was a test at the school that was stolen. I did not realize that it was stolen. I took the test afterwards. I knew what the rumor mill was. I knew people who were implicated in it.”

“I didn’t come forward with that information, and when asked, I gave all the information I had, but as I mentioned, I come from an incredibly accountable place, so I didn’t walk,” she said. “And like I said, I’m happy to be accountable to all of you and to be transparent.”

The New Jersey contest, alongside Virginia’s, is seen nationally as an early test of President Trump’s standing ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Sherrill has consistently tied Ciattarelli to Trump. “As Trump has inflicted all this damage on our country, Republican politicians like Jack Ciattarelli have cheered him on every step of the way,” she wrote in a recent fundraising email.

At their first debate, she charged that “he’ll do whatever Trump tells him to do.”

Ciattarelli countered that Sherrill blames Trump for everything. “Listen, if you get a flat tire on the way home from work today, she’s going to blame it on the president. There isn’t anything she doesn’t blame on the president,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Running for governor for the third time, Ciattarelli nearly toppled Murphy four years ago. He insists Trump is not the central issue in the race.

“We’ve got a property tax crisis in the state. The president doesn’t have anything to do with that. We’ve got a public safety crisis in the state. Nonviolent crime is through the roof. He doesn’t have anything to do with that. We’ve got a public education crisis, an overdevelopment crisis. Look at your monthly electric bill. The President doesn’t have anything to do with those things,” Ciattarelli argued.

The former lawmaker, CPA, and publishing entrepreneur is working to link Sherrill to Murphy and the Democratic legislature, which has long controlled Trenton.

While New Jersey consistently votes Democratic in presidential elections, Trump cut the margin from a 16-point deficit in 2020 to just 6 points last year.

Sherrill, who previously worked as a federal prosecutor before her election to Congress in 2018, has leaned on affordability as her central campaign theme.

“I am laser-focused on driving down costs for families like yours. I’m going to declare a state of emergency on day one, freezing your rate hikes. I’m going to demand transparency and accountability from our government to save you time and money,” she vowed at the first debate.