Nearly two full days after Melania Trump delivered her keynote speech at the RNC, portions of which were discovered to have been taken from a speech Michelle Obama delivered at the DNC in 2008 – and after a full day of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort repeatedly insisted there was nothing to see here because no plagiarism was committed – Trump Org. staffer Meredith McIver has issued a statement saying the fault was hers and that passages from Obama’s speech were in fact included in the keynote speech. Her statement, on Trump Org. letterhead, was tweeted by the candidate.

“In working with Melania Trump on her recent First Lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people,” said McIver, who also has worked with Donald Trump on some of his books.

“A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone she read me some pages 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. 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.”

“Yesterday I offered my resignation to Mr. Trump and the Trump family but they rejected it. Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grown from these experiences…I apologize for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused.”