CLEVELAND -- A longtime employee of the Trump Organization took responsibility for lifting two passages from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama for Melania Trump's Monday address at the Republican National Convention, saying that it was an innocent mistake.
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The employee, Meredith McIver, who has worked on some of Donald Trump's books, was identified by The New York Times on Tuesday night, although the extent of her involvement was unclear. The Trump campaign declined to answer questions. McIver was brought in after Melania Trump discarded the majority of a draft written by two professional speechwriters.
McIver identified herself in a statement posted on the Trump campaign's website, hours after the chief strategist, Paul Manafort, said the issue was manufactured by the news media.
"In working with Melania on her recent first lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people," McIver wrote.
"A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama," she added. "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. 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."
She said that she had "offered my resignation to Mr. Trump and the Trump family but they rejected it," and that "Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and we learn and grow from these experiences."
She continued: "I asked to put out the 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. I apologize for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused. Today, more than ever, I am honored to work for such a great family."
McIver 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.
The passages in question came near the beginning of Melania Trump's nearly 15-minute speech.
In one example, Trump said: "From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect."
Eight years ago, Michelle Obama said: "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect."
There were similar overlaps in a passage dealing with conveying to children that there is no limit to what they can achieve. Trump's address was otherwise distinct from the speech that Obama gave when her husband was being nominated for president.
The Trump campaign had pushed back on claims that Manafort and his team were behind the listed passages. An hour before McIver's statement was released, Donald Trump accused the news media of holding a microscope to his wife and employed one of his favorite phrases about publicity.
"Good news is Melania's speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!" Trump wrote in one Twitter post.
In a quick follow-up, he added, "The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania's speech than the FBI spent on Hillary's emails."
The investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while she was the secretary of state lasted nearly a year.
Trump had stayed silent throughout Tuesday after the speech Monday night. On Wednesday, Manafort said in televised interviews that it was time to move on. In the past two days he had said there was no borrowing of language, and that the words in common were familiar phrases.
Information for this article was contributed by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times and by Stephen Ohlemacher of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/21/2016