Hillary Clinton's pastor Bill Shillady has apologised and sought forgiveness after further evidence of plagiarism in his new book led to the publisher pulling the book and remaining copies being destroyed.
United Methodist minister Rev Bill Shillady is the author of Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a collection of devotionals he had written to Clinton from April 2015 to December 2016.
In August, just before the book's release, CNN revealed that in one devotional entry Shillady had copied paragraphs of material from a blog post by Rev Matthew Deuel.
Shillady then apologised for not giving Deuel the due credit, in what he said was an unwitting error, and Deuel agreed not to pursue any public prosecution. But the book's publisher Abingdon Press has now announced that it is pulling the book from publication and pulping any remaining copies after it discovered further evidence of plagiarism beyond that found in August, according to CNN.
Brian Milford, the president and publisher of The United Methodist Publishing House, which owns Abingdon Press, said that after an 'extensive review' the publisher was 'alarmed to discover other content unattributed by the author.'
He added: 'Abingdon Press has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Consequently, we have discontinued sales, will remove existing copies from all sales outlets, and will have them destroyed along with our existing inventory.' The publisher didn't share who the other plagiarised authors were.
In a statement on Tuesday Shillady said he deeply regretted his actions. 'I was wrong and there is no excuse for it,' he said.
'I apologize to those whose work I mistakenly did not attribute. I apologize to those I have disappointed, including Secretary Hillary Clinton, Abingdon Press, and all the writers and others who have helped me publish and promote this book. I ask for everyone's forgiveness.'
Clinton, a committed Methodist who was close with Shillady, had written a foreword to the book and was due to promote it at a New York event on Thursday.
