Trump: I'll release taxes if you disclose emails

Donald Trump tried to make a deal with Hillary Clinton: my tax returns for your 30,000 deleted emails.

Clinton doesn’t look likely to take him up on his offer, but she did get a reaction when she suggested that perhaps there’s something “really important, maybe even terrible that he’s trying to hide.”


“Maybe he doesn’t want the American public, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid no federal taxes,” Clinton mused.

“That makes me smart,” Trump interjected.

That would mean he’s contributed “zero,” Clinton said, to schools, troops and veterans.

Trump repeated his promise to release his tax returns when the IRS finishes its audit (the agency has said he’s free to do so now) – or when Clinton releases her 30,000 deleted emails. But he nonetheless touted his business prowess, pointing to financial fillings that show more than $600 million in income for his companies, which he claimed are “extremely under-leveraged.”

He added that those statements are not meant to be “braggadocios.”

Trump continued, “It’s time that this country had somebody running it who has an idea about money.”

Clinton called Trump’s focus on her emails a “bait and switch.” But pressed by the moderator, Clinton repeated that using a private server for her emails was a “mistake.”

Trump chimed in, “That’s for sure.”

He added, “That was not a mistake, that was done purposely,” pointing to aides who have pleaded the fifth to avoid self-incrimination.

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Trump said, “And believe me this country really thinks it's disgraceful also.”