One of the strangest incidents of the 2012 presidential campaign was when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid accused then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of having not paid any taxes over the past decade. That Reid made that allegation from the floor of the Senate made it even odder.

Perhaps Sen. Harry Reid should sue Hillary Clinton for copyright infringement. The former Secretary of State went after Donald Trump for failing to release his tax returns, suggesting that it could be because he is not as charitable as he claims or maybe he didn’t pay any taxes on his fortune. it was eerily reminiscent of the lie Harry Reid admitted telling in 2012 about Mitt Romney:

The problem with Reid's allegation? It's just not true. We know that, at least in 2011 and 2010, Romney did pay taxes. How do we know that? Because Romney released his tax returns for those years. In 2011, Romney paid $1.9 million in taxes; in 2010, he paid slightly more than $3 million in taxes. Our own Fact Checker gave Reid Four Pinocchios for his "no taxes" claim. PolitiFact gave the claim a "Pants on Fire" rating. Yet Reid (D-Nev.) not only refuses to retract the allegation but also seems to take great pride in it. When pressed by CNN's Dana Bash last year about continuing to defend a statement that is not true, Reid responded, "Romney didn't win, did he?"

Hillary Clinton is hoping her innuendo about Trump’s tax returns will have the same effect. Trump’s response that he’ll release them against the wishes of his lawyers if she releases her 33,000 deleted emails was weak. If he paid no taxes and did so legally, he should release his returns. But the challenge to Hillary should have been that he’ll release his returns if she explains how the Clintons amassed a not-so-small fortune while engaged in “public service” and agree to an audit of the Clinton Foundation.

How is it, Madam Secretary, that your husband’s speaking fees doubled after you became Secretary of State? Did your husband suddenly become more articulate and experienced? Or did they know that the way to your heart might be through your husband’s wallet? Was the reason you deleted those 33,000 emails that they contained evidence of why you really set up your own unsecured private server – the “pay-for play” contributions by donors to the Clinton Foundation seeking favors and access?

How is it, Secretary Clinton, that the Clinton Foundation accepted donations from countries and individuals that support the execution of homosexuals, throwing them off buildings and who support Sharia Law and state-sponsored suppression and abuse of women and their rights?

As Investor’s Business Daily editorialized, donations to the Clinton Foundation even played a factor in the refusal of Hillary Clinton’s State Department to designate Nigeria’s Boko Haram as a terrorist organization for two years:

Hillary's emails may be only the tip of an iceberg that could include Clinton Foundation donations to shield Boko Haram from being designated a terrorist group and her brother's involvement in a Haitian gold mine… Last month, the Washington Post reported on another deal involving Rodham that could prove politically embarrassing and damaging for his sister. It seems that he sits on the board of a company that got a coveted gold-mining contract from the government of Haiti after the Clinton Foundation sponsored relief work in Haiti. In interviews with the Post, both Rodham and the chief executive of Delaware-based VCS Mining said they were introduced at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which seems more and more to be an unseemly mix of charitable work with the political and business interests of Clinton Foundation donors. And then there's Hillary's strange dealings regarding the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, which just recently pledged its allegiance to the ever-expanding Islamic State -- dubbed the "JV team" by President Obama, who has yet to make good on his pledge to degrade and destroy them. Last May, we wondered why for two years on Hillary Clinton's watch the State Department refused to designate a Nigerian Islamist group as a terrorist organization. This group has murdered thousands as it wages a real war on women. As Josh Rogin at the Daily Beast reports, the Clinton State Department "refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011" after the group bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last week asking for all of Hillary's records relating to Boko Haram and her reluctance to designate it a foreign terrorist organization. Vitter also requested all of Hillary's communications with Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian construction tycoon who has donated millions to the Clinton Foundation. Vitter noted that Chagoury had a financial interest in the potential impact of designating Boko Haram a terrorist group How many of the more than 30,000 "personal" emails that Hillary deleted from her private account relate to these matters? Is that why she needed a private email server? We need to see that server. It might provide, er, a veritable gold mine of information.

Yet, for some reason, the slush fund that is the Clinton Foundation never came up in the debate nor did Donald Trump bring it up. Corruption has been a Clinton hallmark. The Clintons have made a career of making a fortune on the dime of a public they intentionally deceive and defraud, using their positions of power to enrich themselves at the public’s expense. Before there was “pay for play” at the Clinton Foundation, perhaps the real reason for the private server and the deletion of 30,000 emails, William Safire wrote of Hillary’s amazing 10,000 percent profit in commodities trading which Hillary credited ro astute reading of the Wall Street Journal:

We now know that was a lie told to turn aside accusations that as the Governor's wife she profited corruptly, her account being run by a lawyer for state poultry interests through a disreputable broker.

The Clinton Foundation scandal does indeed remind one of the days when the Clintons were renting out the Lincoln Bedroom and Johnny Chung famously observed that the White House was like a subway turnstile, saying you had to put money in to gain access.

Trump should release his tax returns, Hillary, when you agree to an audit of the Clinton Foundation.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.