WASHINGTON — New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Mikie Sherrill was blocked from walking with her graduating class at the US Naval Academy after being caught up in a massive cheating scandal, a bombshell report revealed.
Sherrill’s name was not included on the commencement program during the May 25, 1994, ceremony, according to records obtained by the New Jersey Globe.
The congresswoman said she was barred from walking because she declined to rat out classmates who were involved in the scandal that impacted 130 midshipmen in her class.
“I didn’t turn in some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk, but graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for nearly ten years with the highest level of distinction and honor,” Sherrill (D-NJ) told the outlet.
She declined to authorize the release of sealed disciplinary records about her time at the academy that would’ve revealed the details of why she was not allowed to walk at graduation.
News of the scandal comes hours after a shocking poll showed her dead even with Republican Jack Ciattarelli, after months of polling pegged her as the clear front-runner.
Notably, Sherrill does appear in the 1994 yearbook for the Naval Academy.
Sherrill and Ciattarelli are both tied at 43% apiece in an Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey, the first mainstream poll that to not give Sherrill a significant lead.
Most polling has pegged the Dem with a near-double-digit lead. However, polls generally underestimated Ciattarelli significantly in the 2021 race.
Sherrill piloted helicopters in the Navy, and made her military record a core aspect of her political campaign. Rumors had swirled during her 2018 bid for New Jersey’s 11th District seat that she might’ve been ensnared in the cheating controversy, but until now, solid proof hadn’t emerged.
The US Naval Academy cheating scandal made national news at the time. Multiple midshipmen had gotten ahold of and shared answers to an electrical engineering exam in 1992. Roughly two dozen of her classmates were expelled.
The scandal sparked a congressional inquiry and led to Rear Adm. Thomas Lynch‘s high-profile resignation as superintendent at the time.
Revelations about Sherrill being barred from walking during graduation come after the National Archives and Records Administration released a tranche of Sherrill’s military records to Ciattarelli ally Nicholas De Gregorio.
“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,” Sherrill’s campaign communications director Sean Higgins said in a statement.
“We are calling on Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration to immediately stop illegally distributing Mikie Sherrill’s military files, with protected personal information like her Social Security Number, and we will explore appropriate legal action.”
Those documents contained a trove of unredacted material such as Sherrill’s Social Security number, CBS first reported.
A spokesperson for the National Archives admitted that “the technician should NOT have released the entire record” and confirmed that a review into the issue is ongoing.
“I support a criminal investigation into the unauthorized and illegal release of Mikie Sherrill’s record,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters on Thursday. “Mikie Sherrill is a patriot and a hero who has served this country.”
“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.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin similarly denounced the document leak.
“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,” he said.
Sherilly served in the Navy from 1994 to 2003 before becoming a prosecutor. She earned an Achievement Medal in 1991 for saving the life of one of her Naval Academy classmates.
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