GOP foreign policy adviser Monica Crowley said Monday she will relinquish the senior job she’d been poised to take in the Trump White House.
Ms. Crowley, who had been tapped to be senior director of strategic communications at the National Security Council, had been dogged in recent weeks by questions about whether she lifted portions of her past written work from other writers. Her move seemed designed to keep that from becoming a distraction as the Trump team prepares to take office.
“After much reflection I have decided to remain in New York to pursue other opportunities and will not be taking a position in the incoming administration,” she said in a statement. “I greatly appreciate being asked to be part of President-elect Trump’s team and I will continue to enthusiastically support him and his agenda for American renewal.”
She was to have worked for National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general.
“The NSC will miss the opportunity to have Monica Crowley as part of our team. We wish her all the best in her future,” Gen. Flynn said in a statement.
A report by CNN earlier this month found passages in Ms. Crowley’s 2012 book “What the (Bleep) Just Happened” closely tracked with others’ work. A separate story by Politico, a website for political insiders, said it found more than a dozen instances of what it deemed plagiarism or insufficient attribution in her 2000 dissertation.
HarperCollins, the publisher of the 2012 book, withdrew the digital version of the book from circulation last week amid the accusations.
Ms. Crowley was also formerly a columnist and online opinion editor for The Washington Times. Executive Editor Christopher Dolan said the paper would review her work, though no charges of plagiarism were lodged against her during her time at the paper.
Ms. Crowley was an assistant to former President Nixon from 1990 to 1994.
The job she was slated for in the White House is held in the current administration by Ben Rhodes, a speechwriter and long-time close adviser to President Obama. Mr. Rhodes was instrumental in brokering restoration of diplomatic relations with the Castro dictatorship in Cuba.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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