Monica Crowley, Pundit Accused Of Plagiarism, Eyed For Treasury Job
In the days during the presidential transition prior to the Trump Administration, it was widely reported that Monica Crowley, a longtime conservative pundit and former Fox News fixture, was in line for a job as deputy national security advisor, working under short-lived Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
However, Crowley eventually withdrew from consideration after CNN uncovered numerous instances of plagiarism in both her 2012 book What The (Bleep) Just Happened and in her 2000 dissertation for her Columbia University Ph.D. Crowley had also been accused of plagiarizing in a Wall Street Journal column in the late 1990s, and the 2017 allegations resulted in HarperCollins pulling the book.
Now, Crowley is reportedly back in consideration for a Trump Administration job.
According to Bloomberg, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is planning to name Crowley his new press secretary. Crowley will hold the title assistant secretary for public affairs. The press secretary position does not require confirmation.
In addition to the plagiarism accusations, Crowley was a registered foreign agent for Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, as recently as 2018, Bloomberg said, as she was doing work along with Douglas Schoen, a former Democratic pollster who is also a frequent Fox News guest. And Crowley also, per Media Matters, once suggested on a radio show that then-candidate Barack Obama “is not black African, he is Arab African.”
Following her withdrawal from the NSC job, Crowley appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and declared that the plagiarism accusations had been “debunked,” and that the publication of them was “a despicable, straight-up, political hit job.” Crowley, however, never did anything to seriously challenge the accusations, nor did anyone ever “debunk” them, per a Business Insider analysis shortly afterward that placed the different text side by side.
In the two years since, Crowley has continued to appear on Fox News, often on Hannity’s show, and has taken a staunch pro-Trump line.
There was some praise for Crowley from current Administration officials.
Steve Mnuchin plans to hire Fox News commentator Monica Crowley as his top spokeswoman, Bloomberg reports.
Reminder: Trump planned to appoint Crowley to a position at the NSC, but she withdrew after CNN reported she had plagiarized portions of her book. https://t.co/C7cRzOJTeq
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 17, 2019
“Brilliant. Compassionate. Thoughtful. Loving. Real. Loyal. Brave. Humble,” U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell tweeted Wednesday. “Treasury is lucky to get her. And so are the American people.”
“Good. She’s smart and deserves it,” former Fox News host Megyn Kelly tweeted.
But not everyone had nice things to say about the appointment.
“Crowley also lied and claimed our reporting on the plagiarism in her book and PhD was debunked,” Andrew Kaczynski, the CNN reporter who broke the plagiarism story, tweeted in reaction to the news.
