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Acting Inspector General of the National Archives Will Brown is launching an investigation into the release of Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s unredacted military records to an ally of her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli.
While Sherrill has spent the past week accusing the Trump administration of illegally conspiring against her gubernatorial campaign, a spokesperson for the National Archives and Records Administration said the breach “was done in error by a NARA employee, who is a technician at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.”
“We have launched an internal investigation to understand how and why the standard operating procedures were not followed, and have also asked that the National Archives’ inspector general launch an investigation as well,” a National Archives spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “While the investigation is ongoing, there is no current indication that the release was intentional by the employee or the requestor. While mistakes are rare, they do happen as NPRC processes over 6,000 requests per day.”
Yet, Sherrill has maintained for nearly a week that the breach “was no mistake.” House Oversight Democrats confirmed the investigation on Tuesday, framing it as “an investigation into the Trump Administration illegally meddling in the New Jersey governor’s race.”
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“Jack needs to cooperate fully with investigators and reveal the full extent of his campaign’s participation in this illegal action,” Sherrill charged in response to the National Archives launching a formal investigation.
Ciattarelli campaign spokesperson Chris Russell responded to Sherrill on Tuesday, urging her to “stop hiding and release her disciplinary records.”
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“The Sherrill campaign’s desperation is showing here,” Russell told Fox News Digital in a statement. “They are flat out lying about this internal NARA investigation that has nothing to do with our campaign in an attempt to distract attention away from the increasing likelihood that Congresswoman Sherrill is lying about what got her barred from graduation. Sherrill’s refusal to release her disciplinary records can only be interpreted as her trying to hide the truth from NJ voters.”
“The illegal disclosure of my military records to my political opponent is not just an attack against me; it is an attack on every veteran who served this country. New Jersey deserves better. It deserves leaders who protect our rights; not those who break the law to score political points,” Sherrill countered, in one of several statements condemning the breach.
The Ciattarelli campaign told Fox News Digital that Nicholas De Gregorio, a friend who is not directly involved in the campaign, “submitted a lawful FOIA request” about Sherrill’s military background of his own accord.
A spokesperson for the National Archives said leadership became aware of the breach on Sept. 22, after the technician mistakenly released the records while responding to a June 30 Freedom of Information Act request.
National Archives said the technician who responded to De Gregorio’s request about Sherrill’s military record “should NOT have released the entire record,” which included private information like her Social Security number.
The agency has apologized for the breach of privacy and has committed to holding their staff accountable for the blunder.
And while Sherrill has blamed the breach on the Trump administration’s political “weaponization of the federal government,” the NARA employee, a technician based in St. Louis, whom the National Archives spokesperson said released Sherrill’s personal information by mistake, is not a political appointee.
With less than five weeks until Election Day, the National Archives controversy has invigorated an already contentious race to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited this year, in the Garden State.
A Fox News survey of New Jersey voters released Tuesday found Sherrill ahead of Ciattarelli by eight percentage points among likely voters (50-42%) and seven points among the larger sample of registered voters (48-41%), with both leads just outside the margin of sampling error.
Democrats were quick to blame the National Archives breach on the Trump administration as the news broke last week.
“The Trump administration’s breach of privacy is a slap in the face to our nation’s brave servicemembers. It’s shameful,” former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said Thursday.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has condemned the Trump administration for what they claimed was a “decision” to release the documents, despite a National Archives official confirming it was a low-level St. Louis branch employee responsible for “failing to follow proper administrative procedures.”
“The Trump administration’s decision to release her unredacted military personnel files to her opponent’s campaign, including her Social Security number, is yet another example of Donald Trump and the Republicans illegally weaponizing the federal government for political purposes,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said, while calling the breach a “shameful scandal that shows how little Donald Trump and Jack Ciattarelli think of the American military.”
Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.
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