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A former classmate of gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill said the New Jersey Democrat is concealing her true involvement in a massive cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy in the nineties.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Brent Sadler, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow who served 26 years in the Navy after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1994, suggested that Sherill’s involvement in the scandal goes deeper than she is letting on.
He said that to receive the punishment imposed on her, being kept from graduating with her class, Sherill would have had to have lied or obscured the facts at some point.
"At some point in time, she lied, or she obscured the facts, I would say lying, and that's why she didn't graduate or walk across the stage. Because if you simply did not report something, it wasn't grounds for honor code violations at the time," he explained.
According to records obtained by the New Jersey Globe, Sherrill’s name was not included on the commencement program during the May 25, 1994, ceremony. (Mikie Sherrill)
Amidst an already bitter gubernatorial race, the New Jersey Globe first reported in September on improperly unsealed military records that revealed that Sherrill was kept from participating in her commencement due to disciplinary action involving midshipmen stealing test answers in a particularly challenging electrical engineering course required for all non-engineering majors.
Sherill has downplayed her involvement, saying, "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."
Meanwhile, her Republican gubernatorial opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, has suggested she is concealing her true involvement and demanded she release her full academic, disciplinary and military records relating to her time at the Naval Academy.
As an engineering major who did not have to take the course, Sadler was not caught up in the scandal. From his knowledge of how the academy responded to the cheating, however, he said that he is not buying Sherrill’s claim.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli, left, looks on while Democrat Mikie Sherrill speaks during the final debate in the New Jersey governor's race, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in New Brunswick, N.J. (Heather Khalifa/AP)
"She can say she covered for her classmates. It wasn’t, ‘I'm not gonna say anything.’ It was lying about what she saw, lying about the details," he said.
He explained that after discovering the test had been stolen, the Navy opened a criminal investigation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Those who came forward and did the "honorable thing" by admitting to taking the stolen test, even if they did not realize it was stolen at the time, were expelled from the academy. However, he said that some of those who did not come forward but were later discovered to be involved when the investigation had been downgraded into a disciplinary matter, faced lesser punishments and were allowed to graduate.
"Those that tried to avoid doing the honorable thing were able to stay and graduate and go off and get commissions," he said. "It sent a very corrosive signal to young officers that doing the honorable thing doesn't pay."
Sadler said that despite having no involvement in the class or scandal, the entire graduating class of 1994, he included, had to deal with the stigma of a black mark on their record well into their military careers.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey responds to questions during the first general election debate with Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli. Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J. (Noah K. Murray/AP Photo)
"I went off to nuclear power school to become a submariner. And there would be snide comments from the instructors and the senior chiefs to say, ‘Hey, okay, all those 94 graduates, we're going to make sure you don't steal the test.’ It's like, ‘Oh, yeah, I got it, fun joke, doesn't really matter.’ But now fast forward to out when you're a division officer responsible for a dozen sailors on an operational nuclear submarine, and the chief and the senior enlisted are kind of going, ‘Oh, you're from one of those, so can I trust you to do the right thing? If you see something, will you do it?’"
"They’d rapidly learn by your own force of your personality that that's not you, but you had to prove it over and over again," he explained.
"Fast forward to my first command course. Folks kind of saying, ‘Oh, 94, it's like, well, a little extra scrutiny on you guys.’ And that's like 15 years later," he said, adding, "it had a cloud."
Sadler said that Sherrill’s response to her involvement in the scandal going public proves that she still has not learned to take accountability for her actions.
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Midshipmen render a salute during the commissioning and graduation ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S., May 24, 2024. (REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy/File Photo)
"She immediately went back, and she defended the worst of the behavior in that scandal, and she let it just continue," he said. "That, in my estimation, is the violation that she's committed here."
Sadler noted that he does not see this as a red or blue issue, but rather that it reveals a deeper societal problem.
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"We should demand better of who leads us," he said.
"American citizens deserve and need better leadership because we're in very dangerous times," said Sadler, adding, "We need to know that those that we vote and elect to represent us will, in fact, act on our best interest and faithfully represent us."
Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
