On Sept. 25, 2025, the Democratic candidate for g
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, among others, shared t
How to access military records
The National Archives is an independent federal agency best known for displaying and storing the founding documents of the United States, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The nation's record keeper stores a whole lot more, however. One branch of the agency, the NPRC, is in charge of military personnel records.
Here, two laws with two different priorities oppose each other. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives members of the public the right to obtain information from the federal government. The Privacy Act, meanwhile, restricts the disclosure of federal records about a specific individual without that person's consent.
The NPRC must play a balancing game between the two. The current regulations on requesting military records are as follows, according to the NPRC's website.
- Veterans and their next-of-kin can always access their personal file with no charge.
- Personnel files are opened to the public 62 years after an individual leaves the military. Anyone can access such files for a copying fee.
- If a member of the public asks for records on a more recent service member, that information is redacted so that it meets the standards of the Privacy Act.
The NPRC's website provides the following list as examples of what a member of the public could ask for without breaching the veteran's privacy:
- Name
- Service Number
- Dates of Service
- Branch of Service
- Final Duty Status
- Final Rank
- Salary *
- Assignments and Geographical Locations
- Source of Commission *
- Military Education Level
- Promotion Sequence Number *
- Awards and decorations (eligibility only, not actual medals)
- Photograph
- Transcript of Courts-Martial Trials
- Place of entrance and separation
*Items rarely available in the records we maintain.
Sherrill's file release
According to the CBS News report, the NPRC provided a mostly un-redacted version of Sherrill's file in late June 2025 to Nicholas De Gregorio, an ally of Sherrill's election opponent, Jack Ciattarelli. The file contained Sherrill's "Social Security number, which appears on almost every page, 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," according to the report.
The amount of information was reportedly surprising even to De Gregorio, who told CBS News he was "a little shocked and kind of disgusted that the social [security number] was there."
According to De Gregorio, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New Jersey's fifth district in 2022, Republican consultant Chris Russell had asked him to look into Sherrill's record, CBS reported.
On June 11, the NPRC responded it did not have records for "Sherril," misspelling her last name. De Gregorio told CBS News that the next day, he talked on the phone with a "real, helpful person." During that call, the NPRC reportedly accessed a system to pull Sherrill's social security number. On June 30, De Gregorio received the mostly un-redacted files, which he provided to Ciattarelli's campaign. He later told CBS News that the Ciattarelli campaign did not pay him or suggest to him that he should access the files.
The National Archives' response
In an email statement to Snopes, spokesperson for the National Archives Grace McCaffrey said that Sherrill's file was released "in error."
"The National Personnel Records Center technician that responded to the request did not follow NPRC's standard operating procedures," the statement read. "The technician should have extracted and released from the record only FOIA-releasable information since the requestor was not next of kin. The technician should not have released the entire record."
The NPRC and CBS News both stated that De Gregorio was not attempting to obtain the sensitive information. Both noted that De Gregorio had filed a standard FOIA request.
"Agency management immediately initiated a thorough review of all internal controls upon learning of the breach, including how and why the technician did not follow standard operating procedures," McCaffrey said. "We will hold our staff accountable for failing to follow proper administrative procedures."
According to Politico, the National Archives' inspector general was launching an investigation into the release.
Sherrill's campaign has doubts
Sherrill's statement, meanwhile, called out Ciattarelli and the Trump administration for "illegally weaponizing [her] records for political gain."
In a phone call with Snopes, Sherrill's communications Director Sean Higgins questioned the reliability of the National Archives. In February 2025, Trump fired the head archivist, Colleen Shogan. The deputy archivist, William "Jay" Bosanko, retired the next week, according to CBS News. Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently serves as the acting head of the independent agency.
Higgins said Sherrill's campaign was suspicious of De Gregorio's phone call. "Something happened on that phone call to make the technician look up Mikie's Social Security number," he said.
Sherrill's campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Ciattarelli campaign asking it to destroy the files. In a response letter (archived) made public by the conservative blog Save Jersey, the Ciattarelli campaign declined to destroy the documents.
According to that letter, the Ciattarelli campaign did not know it was in possession of "any materials [the National Archives] should not have provided" until informed so by a reporter — presumably James La Porta at CBS.