BREAKING: Melania Trump plagiarism row: Staffer admits role in speech

Republicans have rallied to support Mrs Trump

An employee of the Trump Organisation, Meredith McIver, has admitted having a role in writing Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention.

Mrs Trump, the third wife of Republican candidate Donald Trump, faced accusations that parts of her speech had plagiarised Michelle Obama.

Ms McIver said her offer to resign was rejected by the Trumps.

"This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused," she said in a statement.

The Trump staffer said Mrs Trump had read out passages from Mrs Obama's 2008 speech in a phone conversation as they discussed people who inspired her.

"A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama," she wrote.

Ms McIver later included the phrases in a draft of the speech without checking Mrs Obama's speeches, she added.

"I am honoured to work for such a great family," she said.

Mr Trump was formally adopted as the Republican candidate for November's presidential election on Tuesday.

In the aftermath of the controversy over his wife's speech, he tweeted that the publicity was good news as the speech "got more publicity than any in the history of politics".

The BBC's North America editor, Jon Sopel, at the convention in Cleveland, says this statement represents both a U-turn and an apology from the Trump campaign.

Mr Trump's campaign manager had toured the TV studios for 36 hours emphatically denying plagiarism, he says.

Republican strategist Sean Spicer even invoked My Little Pony in an interview with CNN - citing similarities between the words of Twilight Sparkle (a purple unicorn from the children's franchise) and Mrs Trump's speech to show that the lines were "common phrases".

Source: BBC