Republican strategist Monica Crowley, who backed out of a job on President Donald Trump’s national security team after it came to light that she plagiarized multiple sections of her dissertation, claimed on Tuesday that the scandal was a “political hit job.”
“What happened to me is a despicable straight-up political hit job,” she told Fox host Sean Hannity. “It’s been debunked, my editor has completely supported me and backed me up.”
In January, CNN’s KFILE reported that Crowley also plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book “What The (Bleep) Just Happened.” None of these reports have been debunked.
HarperCollins announced in January that it would no longer sell Crowley’s book until she had “the opportunity to source and revise the material.”
Crowley said there is an “increasingly toxic and poisonous atmosphere of personal destruction in Washington and the media.”
“In some ways, I was something of the canary in the coal mine. The attack on me was a test,” she said. “What happened to me, what happened to General Flynn, what has happened to Attorney General Sessions and others is all of a piece.”
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn stepped down in February following reports that he discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump’s inauguration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from an investigation into any ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, amid revelations that Sessions met twice with the same Russian ambassador before the election.
Crowley claimed that there is a “destabilization campaign” underway against Trump, his administration and his agenda. She said that the same “forces” that resulted in her downfall want to “destroy” Trump’s presidency “and they would like to see the man in prison.”
“Having been a victim of this myself, they are out for blood,” she said. “And the reason they have to destroy him is that Donald Trump is an alien organism that has been injected into the body politic by the American people to reform it.”
