Oh.
My.
GAWD
My weekend schadenfreud cup runneth over this Friday evening.
As much as I hate to give him credit, I have to thank Brother Bingley for the heads-up on this one. It would be churlish of me to do otherwise, and I am nothing if not magnanimous.
As gobsmacking as Congresswoman and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill’s inexplicably awful campaign blunders have been this week, capped off by yesterday’s Naval Academy cheating scandal bombshell, never in my wildest imagination did I think it was anything but her problem.
It turns out it’s what eventually became a family affair.
Mikie Sherrill’s husband also ensnared in massive Naval Academy cheating scandal https://t.co/Hvm0IRz65V pic.twitter.com/fpKgQgPoc2
— New York Post (@nypost) September 26, 2025
Yeah. I guess she and now investment banker Jason Hedberg met each other at Annapolis.
And what is coming out about Sherrill in this report on her husband’s trial and scandal tribulations makes her look so much sketchier, I don’t know how she survives this unless Ciattarelli has an aunt buried in his basement.
Hedberg was also ‘caught up’ in the massive cheating scandal that erupted around a master copy of an exam that had been seen by what appears to have been a majority of the class before it was given.
…A midshipman apparently obtained a master copy of an exam for Electrical Engineering 311 at least three days before it was given Dec. 14, 1992, The Baltimore Sun reported. Academy sources said that copies of the test were sold in Bancroft Hall, the dormitory that housed some 4,000 midshipmen at the time. Faculty were blamed for not following proper procedures in duplicating the exam, including a requirement for signatures to pick up exam copies from the copy center.
…Some 700 juniors took the exam for the mandatory engineering course known as “wires.” But more than 130 midshipmen “were implicated by the Navy’s inspector general in the theft and distribution of the exam,” The Sun reported, and of those, about 80 admitted to cheating. Yet only 29 were recommended for expulsion. Despite the widespread cheating, a new test was not administered, according to The Sun.
Cheating was a big deal for military academies
The Naval Academy honor code commands that midshipmen should not “lie, cheat or steal.” Cheating was viewed as one of the most serious offenses because it “strikes at the heart of the academy’s mission” and because it showed a lack of discipline expected of Naval officers, according to The Sun
…The midshipman who was identified as the supplier of the stolen exam was cleared after a witness refused to testify against him to the honor board. The witness said his lawyer advised him to stand by his brigade. He also claimed he was offered a $15,000 bribe to resign, The Sun reported. Six midshipmen along with the reluctant witness were convicted of honor violations. Four of the original 28 cases were later dismissed for insufficient evidence. An advisory board, at the time, recommended an extensive overhaul of the midshipmen’s honor code.
An admiral lost his job at the Naval Academy
It sounds as if the academy was in a state of chaos to begin with. The faculty members weren’t following procedures, and the admiral who was eventually fired had originally been sent in as a fixer, so this was a doubly embarrassing episode.
Anyway, let’s dig into this New York Post report. Hedberg and a couple of dozen others sued the government to block an Honor Board inquiry.
Unlike his now wife, for whatever reason, Hedberg was allowed to graduate with his class.
Jason Hedberg was one of about four dozen midshipmen who sued top officials at the Naval Academy, Navy and Pentagon in 1994 in a desperate bid to block an Honor Board at Annapolis from deciding whether they should be dismissed from the school.
“In compliance with the orders of their superior military officers, each named plaintiff was compelled to make inculpatory statements to Navy Inspector General investigators,” read the complaint, which charged that the students were denied due process.
The details of any “inculpatory statements” by Hedberg are unclear. However, his name is included in the 1994 commencement program, suggesting that he — unlike Sherrill — was cleared to take part in exercises some three months after the suit was filed.
Folks in the know are throwing a BS flag at Mikie Sherrill for her claim that she was prevented from attending the ceremonies because she wouldn’t rat out her friends.
...“Nobody, including Mikie Sherrill, was barred from graduation ceremonies for covering for their friends,” claimed this person, who has reviewed the documents. “That’s a bunch of bulls—. Midshipmen were, however, punished for lying to Naval investigators.”
As the candidate refuses to release her disciplinary records to clear up the entire question, speculation about what her real offense was and why she was still allowed to graduate will only run more rampant.
Hedberg and the others’ lawyers at the time claimed their Fifth Amendment rights had been violated, and, interestingly enough, one of the government lawyers who was working to throw out the case was Eric Holder.
…Lawyers for Hedberg and the other midshipmen filed the suit in February 1994, arguing that a prior inspector general investigation wrongly denied plaintiffs their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Citing those and other technical concerns, they sought to block the academy from proceeding with the “Allen Board” — an Honor Board formed in January 1994 to probe the cheating scandal.
One of the federal attorneys for the Navy, Pentagon and Naval Academy pressing the courts to throw out the case was future Attorney General Eric Holder.
Government attorneys argued that the case wasn’t ripe for judicial review because it wasn’t clear that the defendants were going to face criminal proceedings.
A judge went along, deciding the midshipmen’s Fifth Amendment rights were ‘moot,’ because there were no criminal charges or penalties attached to the proceedings.
What a confusing jumble of smarm and disrepute.
Sherrill’s campaign is still stalling, preferring to focus on the data breach instead of addressing the pressing issue of the candidate’s trustworthiness, which appears to contradict her oft-repeated boast of ‘transparency.’
…On Thursday, Democrats went into meltdown mode over a pair of twin disasters: a poll showing Mikie Sherrill tied with Jack Ciattarelli AND the revelation that Sherrill – who has built her entire campaign and identity around being a former Navy helicopter pilot – was BARRED from her Naval Academy graduation due to her conduct in relation to a cheating scandal. Their defense? Offense, accusing the Ciattarelli campaign of “doxxing” Sherrill since the federal FOIA records custodian released the records unredacted. Oh, and as expected, more lazy fingerpointing at the President of the United States.
“This is an illegal and dangerous weaponization of the federal government,” complained Sherrill, without any apparent cognizance of the irony (see above), via her X page.
“My friend @MikieSherrill proudly served our country,” added Virginia Democrat gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger. “Her military service should be honored — not questioned and certainly not weaponized. The Trump Administration’s breach of privacy is a slap in the face to our nation’s brave servicemembers. It’s shameful.”
They want a criminal investigation.
I don’t believe voters are going to fall for the weaponization of government in the tailpipe trick. Sherrill’s being exposed, alright, but she’s the one who’s doing it.
GP On the whole Mikie Sherrill USNA scandal revelations caused by an opponent seeking sealed records, I’d remind people that’s how Obama ended up in the Senate, getting his opponent’s sealed divorce records unsealed.
It wasn’t a campaign that screwed up. It was the record keeper
— The Gormogons (@Gormogons) September 26, 2025
There’s just too much ‘there’ there with Sherrill.
Whatever momentum Sherrill had — if any — has melted completely. Between her Charlie Kirk comments, questionable stock trades and this — it’s going to be hard to overcome this. https://t.co/keT8dr5kxI
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) September 26, 2025
And there are way too many people unhappy with Phil Murphy who have no intention of allowing a worse, even more incompetent Democrat to take his place in a state beaten to death by Democrat policies and fever dreams.
Rally in Lumberton NJ for Jack Ciattarelli at Dadz Bar & Grill, Let’s Flip NJ Red ♥️ https://t.co/W6JgOP20Vq
— Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey (@wakeupnj) September 26, 2025
At this stage of the game, I don’t know if finally coming clean would help Sherrill recover, even the tiniest bit.
The tell will be what happens in the next week or so. If the money pours into the state to save her, and what passes for big guns in the party fly in to rally the faithful.
Or if they start canceling events and ad buys, as they tuck their tails and head to Virginia to try to shove Sherrill’s old roommate, Abigail Spanberger, into the governor’s seat there over Winsome Sears.
I have a feeling this next New Jersey poll is gonna be a doozy.
Happy weekend!
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