Paul Singer

USA TODAY

Melania Trump's speechwriter put out a statement taking responsibility for sticking Michelle Obama's words into Mrs. Trump's mouth, but the statement raised more questions than it answered.

Here are four questions that now loom over Speech Breach:

1) Trump aide Meredith McIver acknowledged Wednesday that she had included some of Michelle Obama's convention speech in her research notes and then included those notes in the speech. It is a fairly common transgression that is usually resolved with a simple apology. So why did the Trump campaign initially argue that no language had been purloined, thereby dragging this story out for several days?

2) McIver said in her statement she is an in-house writer at the Trump Organization. She does not show up on campaign payroll through the end of May. Did the campaign pay her on a freelance basis for this speech, or is the campaign simply relying on corporate resources for political purposes (a no-no in the campaign finance world)?

3) McIver said she offered Trump her resignation, but he rejected it, saying people make innocent mistakes. It is a nice show of loyalty. But why did Trump then force McIver to issue a statement under her own name and take the fall for the whole kerfuffle instead of issuing the apology himself?

4) Melania Trump's speech was her biggest moment of this presidential campaign, and the first introduction most Americans would have to her. Why didn't Melania Trump continue to use professional political speechwriters, instead of relying on a longtime employee who has ghost-written a host of Trump books?

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