*The speechwriter for Donald Trump’s company who came forward today to admit that she stole parts of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention address is claiming that Melania Trump was well aware of the plagiarism before she recited the passages in her speech Monday at the Republican National Convention.
In a statement issued by the campaign, Meredith McIver took the blame but said Mrs. Trump picked out passages from Mrs. Obama’s 2008 speech as the two were crafting the address.
“A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama,” McIver says of Mrs. Trump. “Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech.”
The statement came after the campaign spent two days insisting that it wasn’t plagiarism and calling the criticism absurd.
McIver, co-author of some of Donald Trump’s books, said she offered to resign but the Republican nominee for president refused to accept her resignation. She was described in the statement as an “in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization.”
McIver started at the Trump Organization in 2001, according to her profile on the website of a booking agency called the All American Speakers Bureau.
Before that, she worked on Wall Street, according to the profile. She is originally from San Jose, California. The profile says she trained at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in English.
“I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”
“I asked to put out this statement because I did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation,” McIver said.
She apologized for “the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused.”
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