‘DOUBLE STANDARD’: NY Ethics Committee Declines to Investigate Democrat

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A watchdog group is appealing after the New York Supreme Court declined to launch an ethics investigation into Gov. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., after Sherrill falsely accused her political opponent of mass killing and launched a campaign to oppose immigration enforcement.

“The New York Attorney Grievance Committee declined to investigate Mikie Sherrill, stating reasons that cut against the most basic of legal principles governing license discipline cases,” James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America, told The Daily Signal.

He noted that the grievance committee “has not given the same treatment to Republicans.” The committee investigated former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2021 for alleged false statements after the 2020 presidential election. A New York appeals court disbarred Giuliani in 2024.

“This is seemingly a double standard at issue here: In order to move forward with a complaint against Mikie Sherrill, the committee is requiring a conviction, but in the case of Mayor Giuliani, this convenient prerequisite was nowhere to be found,” Fitzpatrick added.

The Attorney Grievance Committee of the New York Supreme Court investigates potential breaches in the Rules of Professional Conduct. CASA filed an ethics complaint against Sherrill in March, and the committee responded with a letter on April 14 declining to investigate. CASA filed an appeal Thursday.

“We don’t make public comment on anything,” a spokesperson for the grievance committee told The Daily Signal.

The Daily Signal reached out to Sherrill’s office for comment and will update the story with any response.

The Ethics Complaint Against Sherrill

CASA’s March complaint cites the Rules of Professional Conduct, which state that a lawyer may face discipline for “illegal conduct that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer,” or for “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.”

The complaint notes that Sherrill accused her political opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, of mass homicide during the 2025 gubernatorial campaign.

“I’m so glad that you went on to kill tens of thousands of people in New Jersey, including children,” she said. “The people you got addicted and died deserve better than you.”

Ciattarelli ran a business that involved an app for pharmaceuticals, but PolitiFact examined Sherrill’s claim, finding that “there is no evidence that Ciattarelli ‘killed’ anyone.”

The complaint claims Sherrill’s accusation constituted “defamation per se, with malice.”

The letter also cites 8 U.S.C. § 1324, which makes it a crime to conceal, harbor, or shield illegal aliens from detection.

Sherrill went on “The Daily Show” in January, outlining her plan to launch an online portal for Garden State residents to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement to New Jersey authorities.

“If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out,” she told the host and her audience. She announced that the state government would create a “portal” to allow people to “upload all their cellphone videos” to “alert people” to ICE’s presence.

“Sherrill has taken the first step toward concealing illegal aliens in New Jersey by calling for people to video any ICE activity and to alert the New Jersey government via web portal,” the complaint states.

“This violates the explicit language of the federal criminal statute referenced above,” the complaint states. “It is ‘deceit[ful]’ to use the power of government to prevent the federal government from being able to perform their operations. Additionally, it is unbecoming of a lawyer to use her power under the law to undermine federal law.”

The Committee’s Response

The grievance committee concluded that “no investigation or action is warranted.”

“Specifically, this committee is not the appropriate forum to determine, in the first instance, if Governor Sherrill has committed federal crimes or is liable for defamation,” Jorge Dopico, the committee’s chief attorney, wrote.

“If a court, agency, or other adjudicative body has found that actions of Governor Sherrill constituted a crime or other misconduct, you may forward their decision to our office,” the attorney added.

The Appeal on Sherrill

Curtis Schube, CASA’s director of research and policy, sent a formal appeal request Thursday.

Schube said the denial letter gave reasons “inconsistent with the law governing the discipline of professional licenses.”

“License discipline proceedings are not criminal in nature,” he wrote. “They apply preponderance of the evidence standards, not beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“By logical extension, the disciplinary process cannot be reliant upon a civil judgment being rendered at a higher standard elsewhere,” he added.

Schube cited Zaidi v. United Bank Ltd., a New York Superior Court ruling from 2002, stating that “there is no requirement of a criminal conviction to sustain a charge in an attorney disciplinary proceeding.”

“Additionally, our complaint against Sherrill also relied upon Rule 8.4(c), which permits you to discipline an attorney for ‘conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,'” Schube’s appeal noted.

The CASA researcher contrasted this with the disciplinary investigation into Giuliani.

“You disciplined Giuliani for ‘false and misleading statements’ related to ‘illegal aliens’ voting in Arizona,” Schube wrote. “The parallels are strong between those allegations and the ones levied here, in that, in both instances political figures are accused of making false or misleading statements that constitute dishonesty, deceit, or misrepresentation. To treat one differently than the other certainly seems suspect.”