A writer in GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's organization admitted Wednesday she made a "mistake" in using Michelle Obama's words in the speech she prepared for Melania Trump to deliver at the Republican National Convention
Meredith McIver, a Trump Organization "in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization," said in a statement that she was responsible for including passages from a speech Obama delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
The accusations of plagiarism sparked by the speech dominated much coverage of the RNC for days.
McKiver said Melania Trump read her some of Obama's lines over the phone as inspiration during the writing process.
"I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech," McIver wrote, The Miami Herald reports.
"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."
McIver said she offered her resignation Tuesday, but Trump rejected it.
The Trump campaign had denied accusations of plagiarism, saying the similarities were coincidence.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.