Sherrill fires back at GOP rival as questions swirl over her military records: ‘Hand in the cookie jar’

New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill claims that her Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli is going on a “witch hunt” over her improperly released military records, which raised questions about her possible involvement in a cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy three decades ago.

“He has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, if you will. He’s now trying to divert from that,” Sherrill told reporters on Tuesday following a campaign event in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey.

The combustible ballot box battle in New Jersey, which is one of only two elections for governor across the country this year, was rocked last week after a New Jersey Globe report revealed that Sherrill’s military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid the cheating scandal.

Ciattarelli and his campaign are calling on Sherrill, who went on to pilot helicopters during her military career after graduating from the Naval Academy, to release her military records to explain why she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony.

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“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 Thursday night in an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

But a separate report from CBS News revealed that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill’s improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

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The news spurred calls by top Democrats across the country for an investigation.

“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,” Sherrill, who served as a federal prosecutor before winning election to Congress, charged Thursday night on the campaign trail in Plainfield, New Jersey.

The National Archives, in a letter last week, apologized to Sherrill, saying the improper release was due to a government worker’s error over a legal records request.

Following the breach of the records, Sherrill’s campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the National Archives and to Ciattarelli’s campaign, as well as to Ciattarelli’s top strategist, Chris Russell and Nicholas De Gregorio, who is described by Sherrill’s team as “an agent of the campaign working at the direction of” Russell.

On Tuesday, Sherrill reiterated that “Ciattarelli’s campaign has been requested legally to return those records.”

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Ciattarelli’s campaign, in a letter Friday, pushed back on the claims by the Sherrill campaign and top Democrats that pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans may have been behind the errant document release.

The Ciattarelli campaign charged that Sherrill “tried to distract attention away from that fact with false accusations and half-truths about what amounts to a clerical error by the National Archives which they took responsibility for and apologized for publicly.”

On Tuesday, responding to Sherrill’s comments, Russell told Fox News Digital that “calling it a witch hunt is absurd. This is about getting to the bottom of what she did or didn’t do at the academy that earned her an incredibly severe punishment.”

And Ciattarelli’s top strategist argued that “her story that she just didn’t rat out some friends is likely a bunch of bull, and she knows and we want to know exactly what she told investigators. Did she lie to them? And how many times did she lie to them? And the only way we’re going to ever figure out what happened is [if] she releases these records.”

Sherrill, who was never accused of cheating in the scandal, said last week that “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 added. “And like I said, I’m happy to be accountable to all of you and to be transparent.”

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Asked by reporters on Tuesday why she wouldn’t release the records, Sherrill said, “I think the reason I haven’t released them publicly, they show many medals and commendations. So, I think my history.”

“They show my graduation from the Naval Academy, they show my commissioning, they show my service medals, they show the record of service that I have,” she added.

And pointing to Ciattarelli, she charged that “instead of returning the records that he illegally obtained, and that the archives, through the Trump administration, illegally released, he is trying to go on some other witch hunt, and I’m certainly not going to allow him to rampage through the records of my classmates from the Naval Academy.”

The accusations from both sides come as the latest public opinion polls indicate a very close contest in blue-leaning New Jersey in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states that hold statewide elections for governor the year after a presidential election, and the contests traditionally grab outsized national attention.

And this year’s ballot box showdowns in the two states are viewed as crucial early tests of the president’s popularity and agenda, and key barometers ahead of next year’s midterm elections for the House and Senate.

Fox News’ Courtney De George contributed to this report