NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey Democratic candidate for governor Mikie Sherrill says her social security number, address and other personal information were released to someone working for her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign.
Sherrill’s campaign said the Trump administration blatantly violated federal law by releasing unredacted military service records to an operative for Ciattarelli in a public records request from her time at the United States Naval Academy.
Ciattarelli’s team said the unredacted information was provided in error, adding they asked for proper redactions and did not release any sensitive information.
Ciattarelli’s team added that Sherril has known about the leak for months and is only talking about it now to distract everyone from the fact that she was punished for her involvement in a 1994 naval academy test cheating scandal.
Sherrill was denied the opportunity to walk at graduation. She told CBS that it was because she did not report those who did cheat.
Sherrill’s team said the Ciattarelli campaign is weaponizing the leak. Her team is exploring appropriate legal action. They said this disrespects the service of all veterans and jeopardizes the safety of their records.
Ciattarelli’s team says this is the first time Sherrill has admitted to being punished for that scandal in all her years as a congresswoman, and they want to see proof that she wasn’t actually caught cheating. They called on her to release her military disciplinary records to be transparent.
Sherrill called the leak "breathtaking and disturbing."
"This disrespects the service of all military veterans, jeopardizes the safety of their records, and shows that Jack Ciattarelli will say or do anything to get elected, no matter the dishonor he brings upon himself — and that should frighten everyone,” she said.