An op-ed penned by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has been republished by the Washington Times despite an earlier editorial decision to end the Kentucky Republican’s weekly column amid accusations of plagiarism.
“When we were constructing the immigration section, we called Sen. Paul’s office as a courtesy and told his communications team we’d like to include the op-ed in the section,” Times Editor John Solomon told the Washington Examiner late Thursday.
“We confirmed the sentiments in that column were still accurate and got an OK to republish the column from his spokesman,” Solomon said.
The Examiner contacted the Kentucky senator’s office and asked about the decision to republish the op-ed.
Paul spokesman Brian Darling confirmed Solomon’s account, saying, “I spoke to Mr. Solomon. He told me that the Washington Times was going to republish a previously published op-ed on immigration and I did not object.
“Over the past few months, Sen. Paul has published [op-eds] in the New York Times, Time Magazine and Politico. The Washington Times recognizes what other publications and platforms recognize: Readers are very interested in Senator Paul’s thoughts and ideas,” Darling said.
The decision to drop the Paul column in November 2013 followed his acknowledgement that he had failed to attribute properly the sources cited in some of his published works.
“The Washington Times … independently reviewed Mr. Paul’s columns and op-eds and published a correction to his Sept. 20 column in which the senator had failed to attribute a passage that first appeared in The Week,” the Times said in an article announcing the column’s cancellation.
“The newspaper and the senator mutually agreed to end his weekly column, which has appeared each Friday since the summer,” the Times said.
Solomon told the Examiner that the Washington Times did not “fire” Paul last year but rather the two parties had agreed to a mutual split.
“Sen. Paul’s staff jointly decided with us to end the column because of concerns about the resources available for quality control inside the senator’s office and the rigors of producing a weekly column,” Solomon said.
The republication is a one-time deal, not a resumption of Paul’s weekly column.
