He ultimately complied.
“I gave the Lieutenant Governor until today to resign,” Sherrill said. “He submitted his resignation to me this afternoon, which I accepted.”
The resignation followed the release of a lengthy investigative report that painted a damaging picture of Caldwell’s conduct while serving in one of New Jersey’s highest elected offices.
The investigation was conducted by Lowenstein Sandler after the governor’s chief ethics officer received an anonymous complaint in May.
Investigators concluded there was a substantiated violation of New Jersey’s workplace policy against sexual harassment, along with additional violations involving Caldwell’s relationship with a state employee and his treatment of tickets to events.
The report found credible evidence that Caldwell made a romantic advance toward the friend of a female staff member.
After the woman rejected the advance, investigators said Caldwell made a sexual remark while speaking with the staffer about her and her friend.
According to the report, the comment made the employee uncomfortable enough that she changed how she interacted with Caldwell, attempted to keep her distance and tried to avoid traveling with him when possible.
Caldwell has denied making the remark.
But that was not the only issue investigators examined.
The report also scrutinized Caldwell’s involvement in the career of a state employee with whom he had a romantic relationship.
Investigators concluded Caldwell advocated for the woman to receive a promotion to a senior position without initially disclosing their relationship.
According to the investigation, he pursued the promotion twice — including after concerns about the potential ethics problem had already been raised.
The woman ultimately did not receive the promotion and later departed state government.
Caldwell has disputed the suggestion that he improperly used his office on her behalf. He has maintained that he considered her qualified for the position and did not order officials to promote her.
Investigators separately examined Caldwell’s attendance at ticketed events.
They found that he brought personal guests to seven such events without paying for their admission or first obtaining the ethics approval required under state rules.
For Sherrill, the accumulated findings were apparently enough.
Her administration said the investigation documented serious and repeated breaches of state policy despite Caldwell having received ethics and workplace training.
“His decision will allow us to move forward with the important work of serving the people of our state,” Sherrill said.
Caldwell, however, is not quietly accepting the investigators’ conclusions.
His attorney, Thomas Calcagni, has attacked the investigative process and argued that investigators relied excessively on anonymous accusations and disputed evidence while failing to give sufficient weight to information favorable to Caldwell.
Caldwell himself remained defiant after submitting his resignation.
Speaking to Fox News outside his home Friday, he described the report as “specious,” “ridiculous” and “poorly done.”
He also insisted his resignation should not be viewed as an admission that the allegations against him were true.
“I’m not resigning because of that ridiculous report,” Caldwell said. “I’m resigning because I don’t want to be a distraction to the Mikie Sherrill administration.”
The controversy created an especially difficult situation for Sherrill because Caldwell was not merely another political appointee who could be dismissed at the governor’s discretion.
New Jersey voters elected Sherrill and Caldwell together in November 2025.
That meant the governor could demand his resignation, but she could not simply fire her independently elected lieutenant governor.
Had Caldwell dug in and refused to leave, state lawmakers could have been forced to consider the far more extraordinary process of impeachment and removal.
His resignation avoids that potential constitutional confrontation.
It does not, however, eliminate the political headache for an administration still in its first year.
Sherrill must now fill the vacancy.
Under the New Jersey Constitution, the governor has 45 days after a lieutenant governor vacancy to appoint a successor who can serve for the remainder of the term.
Sherrill said she plans to move “swiftly and thoughtfully” through that process.
The immediate battle over Caldwell’s future may therefore be finished, but the questions surrounding the investigation are unlikely to disappear with his resignation.
Caldwell and his legal team continue to reject key findings and have signaled that they intend to challenge the report.
Meanwhile, Sherrill is attempting to move her administration beyond a scandal involving the very official voters elected to serve directly beside her.
Less than a year after taking office, New Jersey’s lieutenant governor is out — forced into a resignation after an investigation substantiated sexual harassment and found a broader pattern of ethics violations, while Caldwell insists the investigation that ended his tenure got the story badly wrong.
