Dear Commons Community,

Various new media are reporting that Donald Trump’s pick for director of strategic communications for the National Security Council is facing new allegations of plagiarism.

Politico Magazine reports Crowley allegedly plagiarized several passages in her Ph.D. dissertation submitted in 2000 while she attended Columbia University.  The report follows revelations by CNN that Crowley may have plagiarized portions of her 2012 book.

The examination from the Politico Magazine found more than a dozen instances where text was either lifted with little to no changes, improperly attributed to the original source, or not attributed at all.Politico Magazine’s examination includes side-by-side comparisons of text found in portions of Crowley’s dissertation.

Both Columbia University and the professor who advised Crowley declined to comment to Politico Magazine about the plagiarism allegations.

An investigation by CNN’s KFile published Saturday first revealed over 50 examples in Crowley’s 2012 New York Times bestseller that appear to have been lifted verbatim from a variety of columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia.

Crowley has a history of plagiarism allegations dating back several years, according to Slate. The publication points to an editorial feature Crowley wrote for The Wall Street Journal in 1999 that 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: “[h]ad we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article.”

Despite the allegations, Trump’s transition team said it continues to support Crowley’s appointment.

“Any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack that seeks to distract from the real issues facing this country,” a member of Trump’s transition team told CNN.

Columbia University should review Crowley’s dissertation and rescind it if it finds deliberate and extensive plagiarism.

Tony