Donald Trump's campaign says claims his wife Melania plagiarised her keynote Republican National Convention speech from America's First Lady Michelle Obama are "crazy" and "absurd".
Ms Trump's prime time speech to the Republican National Convention was watched by 35 million people, but its aftermath has been dominated by claims she borrowed whole sections almost word-for-word from some portions of a 2008 speech by Ms Obama.
The controversy dominated the start of the second day of the convention, which saw delegated formally endorse Mr Trump as the Republican candidate for the November election.
But the Trump campaign said the accusation of plagiarism was "crazy".
"To think she would do something like that knowing how scrutinised her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd," campaign manager Paul Manafort said.
Mr Trump's team released a statement which read: "In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's aspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking.
"Melania's immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it a success."
But Republican Party chair Reince Priebus said Ms Trump's speechwriter should "probably" be fired for plagiarism.
"Certainly I don't blame her (Ms Trump) for anything," he said.
He said the address "gets you off message a bit this morning, but I think we'll get back to action this afternoon".