Monica Crowley.
Monica Crowley, President-elect Trump's pick for director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, plagiarized numerous sources in her 2012 book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?"
A bombshell investigation published by CNN's KFile found over 50 examples in the book in which Crowley appears to have copied exact language from, columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The investigation says that the book - a New York Times bestseller - "contains no notes or bibliography."
In one instance, Crowley, who was most recently a Fox
In another section, a passage in her book is almost a word-for-word copy of a 2010 article by James Rosen for Fox News.
Here's what it says in Crowley's book, according to passages highlighted in CNN's investigation:
She also said that she was only briefed once-in September 2002-on the advanced interrogation methods.
At the time, Pelosi was the House Minority Whip and top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She said that CIA briefers told her that "the use of enhanced interrogation techniques were legal" and added that waterboarding "was not being employed."
Here's what Rosen's Fox News article says:
Last year, Pelosi said she was only briefed once on the advanced interrogation methods, in September 2002.
At the time, Pelosi was the House Minority Whip and top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She said in May 2009 that CIA briefers told her that "the use of enhanced interrogation techniques were legal," and added that waterboarding "was not being employed."
Crowley also seems to have plagiarized sections from at least five Wall Street Journal articles, according to CNN.
Here's a passage from her book:
Meanwhile, GM's bondholders got screwed.
GM had $27.2 billion in unsecured bonds owned by the public. These were owned by mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, and retail investors who bought them directly through their brokers. Under the restructuring deal, they were forced to exchange their $27.2 billion in bonds for 10 percent of the stock of the new GM. This amounted to less than five cents on the dollar.
Here's a passage from the 2009 Wall Street Journal article that Crowley lifted the material from:
The biggest losers here are GM's bondholders.
According the Treasury-GM debt-for-equity swap announced Monday, GM has $27.2 billion in unsecured bonds owned by the public. These are owned by mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds and retail investors who bought them directly through their brokers. Under Monday's offer, they would exchange their $27.2 billion in bonds for 10%
of the stock of the restructured GM. This could amount to less than five cents on the dollar.
In another example, Crowley copied a 2011 Journal article.
Here's the passage from her book:
As the late great economist Milton Friedman pointed out, the true burden on taxpayers
is government spending because government borrowing demands future interest payments out of future taxes.
And here's the snippet from a 2011 Journal article by Michael J. Boskin that passage seems to have come from:
As Milton Friedman taught decades ago, the true burden on taxpayers today is government spending; government borrowing requires future interest payments out of future taxes.
The list compiled by CNN includes a number of other sources Crowley plagiarized, including the Associated Press, the New York Times, Yahoo! News, National Review, Heritage Foundation, Politico, USA Today, BBC, and others.
This isn't the first time Crowley has been accused of plagiariasm.
An editorial feature she penned for the Wall Street Journal in 1999 was found to have borne "striking similarities in phraseology" to a 1988 article by Paul Johnson in Commentary magazine. The Journal said in an editor's note published after the fact that "[h]ad we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article."
Multiple requests for comment from CNN were not returned by Crowley, but the Trump team is standing by her.
"Monica's exceptional insight and thoughtful work on how to turn this country around is exactly why she will be serving in the Administration," said a statement from a transition team spokesperson, per CNN. HarperCollins - one of the largest and most respected publishers in the world - published her book which has become a national best-seller. Any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack that seeks to distract from the real issues facing this country."