TIME Justice Department

Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN ‘Troll’ Tweet

A staffer accidentally tweeted about Trump's speech from the Department of Justice account

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A Department of Justice staffer lost access to the agency’s Twitter account after tweeting “CNN is the biggest troll of them all lmao #Petty” from the department feed. The tweet linked to a CNN story about Melania Trump allegedly plagiarizing passages in her speech at the Republican National Convention Monday night from Michelle Obama.

“A staffer in the public affairs office erroneously used the official Department of Justice Twitter handle to post a tweet that was intended for a personal account,” the DOJ said in a statement. “The tweet does not represent the Department’s views and was inappropriate for the Department of Justice’s official account, so it was immediately deleted.”

It took the department nearly three hours to issue a statement on the tweet and explain what happened.

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“As a result of this incident, the Office of Public Affairs has implemented procedural changes to the way we use our social media accounts and will provide additional social media training for employees,” the statement continued. “The Justice Department takes this matter very seriously and will continue to take the appropriate steps to prevent it from happening in the future.”

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