Race to disclose: Clintons’ speech fees plummet 93pc as Trump cites US$557 million income
The disclosures, used by both campaigns to score political points, hit on central questions about candidates’ finances in the 2016 presidential campaign
In duelling disclosures, Hillary Clinton reported that the income she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, received from speaking fees nosedived, while Donald Trump announced that his income exceeded US$557 million.
The disclosures, used by both campaigns to score political points on Tuesday night, hit on central questions about candidates’ finances in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Clinton, the Democratic front runner, released to reporters an 11-page financial disclosure showing that Bill Clinton received almost US$1.7 million in new speaking fees from June through November last year, a number that was down about US$23 million, or 93 per cent, from the amount that the couple reported earning on her last disclosure, in May 2015. Clinton’s campaign has been dogged by questions about speaking fees she has disclosed previously, particularly from Wall Street banks.
Clinton’s nighttime release came only after Trump issued a statement saying he also filed a 104-page financial disclosure – “which I am proud to say is the largest in the history” of the Federal Election Commission, the agency that compiles the reports. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, declined to release the actual document. The FEC will ultimately make it public, but it has as many as 30 days to review the filing.
Trump said his disclosure will report income of US$557 million – though that’s not an annual figure. Under federal rules, the filing is supposed to cover January 1, 2015 through May 16, 2016 – a 16 and-a-half month period. In a disclosure last July, Trump’s campaign put his income at US$362 million. In Tuesday’s statement, the campaign said Trump’s new disclosure shows “a revenue increase of approximately US$190 million”, but said the income amount “does not include dividends, interest, capital gains, rents and royalties”.
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Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, declined to offer any details, or to release Trump’s actual disclosure form. “It’s not our obligation to release it,” he said. “It’s our obligation to file it.”
