Hillary Clinton One-Ups Donald Trump by Actually Releasing Her 2016 Personal Financial Disclosure
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton released her annual personal financial disclosure, which showed that in 2015 she earned about $1.5 million in speaking fees and more than $5 million in royalties from her memoir, Hard Choices. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also earned more than $5 million in speaking fees.
Clinton released the actual filing just hours after Donald Trump released a statement describing his. “I filed my PFD, which I am proud to say is the largest in the history of the FEC,” Trump claimed. “Despite the fact that I am allowed extensions, I have again filed my report, which is 104 pages, on time.”
Trump, whose PFD is not yet available for public review, also claims that his disclosure shows his annual income is greater than $557 million and that his net worth is greater than $10 billion. (There’s no real reason to believe this is particularly accurate.)
“Despite Donald Trump’s boasting, submitting his personal financial disclosure form is no breakthrough for transparency,” Clinton campaign spokeswoman Christina Reynolds said in a statement. “The true test for Donald Trump is whether he will adhere to the precedent followed by every presidential candidate in the modern era and make his tax returns available, as Hillary Clinton has done.” The former secretary of state released her family tax returns from 1977 to 2014 last year.
Clinton’s Tuesday disclosure shows that she made fewer speeches leading up to the April announcement of her candidacy. According to the Associated Press, Clinton made at least 94 such appearances before corporations, trade associations, and other special interests between 2013 and 2015 and earned more than $21.6 million as a result. Nearly all of them lobbied the government or bid for contracts at some point during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
The disclosure also includes an accounting of Bill Clinton’s income. From the AP:
Her husband made an undisclosed amount of money last year in consulting roles for two international interests — the Dubai-based Varkey GEMS Foundation and Laureate Education Inc., a global for-profit education firm. Bill Clinton ended his relationship with Laureate last year after earning $16.5 million as the operation’s honorary chancellor, according to previously-released Clinton tax records. Bill Clinton also has made more than $5.6 million in an honorary role for the GEMS foundation.
Bill Clinton used a limited liability company called WJC, LLC to handle his consulting fees, according to the disclosure filed by his wife. The disclosure does not detail the exact amount of consulting income Bill Clinton made because under federal reporting guidelines, any such spousal income over $1,000 is not required to be made public. Hillary Clinton also used a limited liability company, ZFS Holdings, LLC, to hold her speech and book earnings.
In March of last year—the month before she announced her candidacy—Hillary Clinton made two appearances: the first, before eBay, in San Jose, California, for which she was compensated $315,000; and the second—her last paid appearance—before the American Camping Association’s New York section, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. For that, she was compensated $260,000.