'Egregious blunder' releases highly personal military data on Dem candidate to opponent

The release of unredacted personal military records of a Democratic governor candidate to her Republican opponent may have been illegal, a Thursday report claimed.

CBS News said that the release of the entire record of Rep. Mikie Sherill's time in the military academy "potentially violates the Privacy Act of 1974 and exemptions established under the Freedom of Information Act."

Sherill is running to be New Jersey's governor against Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli, who was able to obtain the files from ally and fellow Republican Nicholas De Gregorio, a former Marine who had a failed bit represent the state in Congress.

The file shows Sherill's social security number on nearly every page, according to the report. It also clearly displays "the home addresses for her and her parents, life insurance information, Sherrill's performance evaluations and the nondisclosure agreement between her and the U.S. government to safeguard classified information."

The social security numbers of her former superiors were redacted, however.

CBS also obtained the file from the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains every record of service members and civil servants across the entire U.S. government.

The report called it an "egregious blunder."

CBS discovered the file as it was working on an investigation into a 1994 Naval Academy scandal in which midshipmen were accused of cheating in an exam. Sherill, who was at the academy at the time, was not accused of cheating but refused to inform on those that were.

"The technician should NOT have released the entire record," wrote Grace McCaffrey of the National Archives and Records Administration, in an email to CBS.

The report found that the National Personnel Records Center didn't follow procedures for releasing information and that only part of the personal information should have been released under the Freedom of Information Act rules.

The Archives is now investigating "how and why" the staffer refused to follow the rules.

The New Jersey Monitor cited an Emerson College poll showing the gubernatorial election in a "dead heat" with 11% of voters still undecided. Sherill has edged ahead of Ciattarelli in other polls, the report acknowledged.