Accusations Trump’s pick for a top communication job with the National Security Council has brought scrutiny to her work. There were accusations of plagiarism against Monica Crowley over a book she wrote in 2012. It turns out she had a ghostwriter which is odd considering her role as a columnist and pundit. She should be writing her own books.

This latest accusation of plagiarism is more serious because she supposedly plagiarized portions of her Ph.D. dissertation:

An examination of the dissertation and the sources it cites identified around more than a dozen sections of text that have been lifted, with little to no changes, from other scholarly works without proper attribution. In some instances, Crowley footnoted her source but did not identify with quotation marks the text she was copying directly. In other instances, she copied text or heavily paraphrased with no attribution at all.

This finding comes on the heels of CNN’s Saturday report that Crowley, the conservative author and commentator whom Trump tapped as senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, plagiarized more than 50 passages in her 2012 book What the (Bleep) Just Happened, copying directly from conservative columns, news articles, Wikipedia and in one case a podiatrist’s website.

Despite the news, the Trump team continues to support the 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 transition spokesperson told CNN. The transition team did not reply to requests for comment for this story.

I like Monica Crowley, but to dismiss accusations of plagiarism as a politically motivated attack is just silly. Partisan politics has nothing to do with copying somebody else’s work and saying it’s your own.

The problem is, more of this likely exists. That is usually the case. I hope I am wrong.