Inspector General To Investigate Rep. Mikie Sherrill Military Records Release

The national archives’ inspector general is launching an investigation into the release of Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s (D-N.J.) military records, according to an email obtained by POLITICO.

Will Brown, the acting inspector general for the National Archives and Records Administration, said Tuesday he has “initiated an investigation into the matter,” which has become a focus of the New Jersey governor’s race. Sherrill is running to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, and her campaign has alleged that the release of the documents is the Trump administration “targeting political opponents” in concert with the Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign.

Brown’s investigation comes in response to a request last week by the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who called the release of the information about Sherrill a “stunning failure” to protect the privacy of a veteran and member of Congress.

Garcia called the release an “illegal and likely politically motivated disclosure” that “raises serious questions about whether NARA, currently headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, released the comprehensive record in a politically motivated effort to aid Rep. Sherrill’s gubernatorial opponent."

Ciattarelli attorney Mark D. Sheridan rebutted last week Democrats’ claims that the campaign or its advisers “were part of a conspiracy to smear Representative Sherrill with ill-gotten documents is completely false.”

The archives have said the material was inadvertently made public in response to a records request by Nicholas De Gregorio, a Marine veteran and ally of the Ciattarelli campaign. Sheridan said that Chris Russell, a Ciattarelli adviser, asked De Gregorio to “see if he could find out anything about Representative Sherrill from his military buddies,” but “did not request that he submit a FOIA request.”

National Personnel Records Center Director Scott Levins acknowledged in an email last week that a staffer made a “serious error” in releasing Sherrill’s comprehensive record to De Gregorio. Levins also informed Sherrill’s campaign of the “error” in a letter last week.

The National Archives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Amid Democrats’ calls for an investigation into the improper release of Sherrill’s records, Ciattarelli and other Republicans have urged Sherrill to release records from her time in the Naval Academy to provide more information about why she did not walk during her graduation. Sherrill, who has not released such records, said that she did not participate in the graduation because she did not turn in her classmates who were involved in a cheating scandal.