--- title: Justice Department Explains Melania Trump CNN Troll Tweet description: A Department of Justice staffer accidentally tweeted about Melania Trump and criticized CNN from the department Twitter account canonical: https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T17:04:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:22:05.861Z article:section: Politics og:title: Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN 'Troll' Tweet og:description: A staffer tweeted about Trump's speech from the Department of Justice account og:url: https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN 'Troll' Tweet twitter:description: A staffer tweeted about Trump's speech from the Department of Justice account twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN 'Troll' Tweet > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f26dd893-589f-446f-8a4b-528599842366&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 19, 2016 5:04 PM UTC  Melania Trump, wife of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Melania Trump, wife of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 19, 2016 5:04 PM UTC 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. [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cnu7gkPXEAAN97z.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cnu7gkPXEAAN97z.jpg) “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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/"},"headline":"Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN 'Troll' Tweet","datePublished":"2016-07-19T17:04:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:22:05.861Z","description":"A staffer accidentally tweeted about Trump's speech from the Department of Justice account","url":"https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/","keywords":["Justice Department","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION","creditText":"ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice-department/","name":"Justice Department"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4413151/justice-department-cnn-troll-melania-trump-tweet/","name":"Justice Department Explains Melania Trump-CNN 'Troll' Tweet"}}]}] ```