CLEVELAND - A Trump Organization staff writer says she made a "mistake" in including passages from a Michelle Obama speech in Melania Trump's convention speech.

Meredith McIver says she offered her resignation, but Donald Trump rejected it.

McIver explained her role in the Trump plagiarism controversy in a statement issued Wednesday.

McIver says Mrs. Trump read passages of Mrs. Obama's 2008 convention speech during the writing the process. She says her notes from that conversation made it into the final version.

She says she feels terrible for the "chaos" she caused.

The Trump campaign has said denied accusations of plagiarism, saying the similarities were coincidence.