Things are starting to heat up in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race after the federal government released an unredacted military personnel report of Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill.
Sherrill, who attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, already faced scrutiny as her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, amplified rumours of her involvement in a cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy during her senior year. 180 midshipmen in the class were implicated and over two dozen students were expelled due to the incident. While Sherrill herself was not found to have cheated, she claims that she was prohibited from walking at graduation because she refused to report her classmates. However, Ciattarelli and other Republican officials have insinuated that she may be more involved in the scandal than she has previously disclosed and have demanded that Sherrill voluntarily release her entire disciplinary file to prove her innocence.
These rumours have been complicated after a recent report containing Sherrill’s unredacted military personnel file was sent by the National Archives to an ally of Ciattarelli. The file included mentions of the cheating scandal and her punishment, although it does not clarify the reason she was reprimanded. The document also includes her Social Security Number — reportedly listed on nearly every page — as well as her home address, information about her parents, her performance evaluations at the Naval Academy, and her life insurance information. In fact, the only information in the document that was redacted were the Social Security Numbers of her former superiors.
The National Archives attributed the leak to a “clerical error” and their Inspector General has launched a formal investigation into the incident. This breach of privacy arguably constitutes a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 — which outlines the ways in which the federal government can obtain and use private records — and the subsequent exemptions for military personnel established by the Freedom of Information Act. According to National Personnel Records Center guidelines, only veterans themselves (or their next of kin, if deceased) are able to access their full records until 62 years after the completion of their service.
Leaders in the Democratic Party have accused the Trump administration of purposefully coordinating the release of the report. In a statement, DNC Chair Ken Martin raises concerns that this “is yet another example of Donald Trump and the Republicans illegally weaponizing the federal government,” and a “scandal that shows how little Donald Trump and Jack Ciattarelli think of the American military.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that he would support a criminal investigation into the matter, and that “it’s outrageous that Donald Trump and his administration and political hacks connected to them continue to violate the law, and they will be held accountable.”
Veterans in New Jersey have gathered at Veterans Memorial Park in Newark over the past week to show support for Sherrill and to protest the improper use of her confidential files. Sherrill herself has said, “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.” If true, this demonstrates a serious lack of regard for veterans and their service as well as an unacceptable breach of privacy by the federal government.
Snopes, a fact checking organization, investigated the possibility of Trump’s involvement in the leak. They found that while the National Archives has launched an investigation into the matter, there has been no further action taken to address the leak and that no employees — including the one who improperly released the record — have been dismissed from the agency. They also report that after being informed of the breach, Sherrill’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Ciattarelli campaign to stop the circulation of the report. The response letter was briefly published publicly by the local conservative blog Save Jersey, in which the Ciattarelli team declined to destroy any documents.
Let’s call it what it is: a federal government employee doxed a political candidate using her confidential military service records and the Ciatteralli campaign circulated the confidential information for political gain.
At best, this represents an unprecedented administrative failure on the part of the National Archives and a moral failure on the part of the Ciattarelli campaign. At worst, this was an intentional targeting of a political enemy of the GOP. If the latter is the case — if politically motivated use of confidential and private information becomes the new norm in Washington — it marks a threat not just to veterans, but to all citizens of the United States of America.
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