Manafort: 'None of us knew' speechwriter was involved

Paul Manafort said on Thursday that no one in the Trump campaign knew that Trump Organization staff writer Meredith McIver “was even involved” in writing Melania Trump’s plagiarized convention speech.

“Look, none of us knew that Ms. McIntyre was even involved in the process,” the Trump campaign chairman said at a press conference from Cleveland, bungling McIver's name. “I asked Melania Trump what the story was about. She insisted and I believe her that these were her words, and the statement that Ms. [McIver] gave yesterday is consistent with that.”


Manafort’s statements are the latest developments in the plagiarism uproar that has dogged the Trump campaign since Melania spoke Monday.

After the campaign repeatedly denied that the nominee’s wife had lifted portions of Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech without attribution -- Manafort dismissed the allegations as "crazy" on national TV -- McIver said on Wednesday that she was responsible for the lifting the words.

“I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech,” she said in a statement. She offered her resignation to the Trump family, but Trump "rejected" her offer, she said.

“The speechwriters who had been involved in the speech that I was aware of said that they had not lifted anything, either,” Manafort said Thursday. “Those were the only people I knew who were in the process. When the first-lady-to-be tells me that she didn't do it and the speechwriters tell me they didn't do it, as far as I’m concerned they didn’t do it.”

On Wednesday, Trump said McIver was a "terrific, terrific woman," who has been with the Trump campaign a long time and "just made a mistake."

"She came in and she said, 'Mr. Trump, I'd like to say what happened.' I thought it was such a nice thing. Who knew this was going to be a big story?" he said in an interview, according to The New York Times.

Manafort's revised explanation for the mistake comes after Corey Lewandowksi, the ousted campaign manager who was his bitter rival inside of Trump's operation, said on CNN that he should resign if he had signed off on the speech.

