While the US obssesses over the taxable Adjusted Gross Income of real-estate billionaire Donald Trump (and has to be content with his just released 104 personal financial statement posted here), another just as (if not more) important number was revealed in a financial disclosure form filed on Tuesday night by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Accordingly, Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned $6.7 million from paid speeches, aka a legal way to purchase influence, since the beginning of 2015, including $2.7 million from speeches the former president gave after his wife officially kicked off her White House bid last April.
As MarketWatch adds, Bill Clinton was paid $285,000 to speak to America’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade association for health insurers, in June 2015. He was paid $200,000 to speak at Stephens Inc., an Arkansas financial-services firm run by Warren Stephens, a major Republican donor. And in September 2015, he was paid $225,000 to speak to Computer Design & Integration LLC, a New Jersey information technology firm.
Hillary Clinton stopped giving paid speeches when she started her 2016 campaign, and Bill Clinton hasn’t given any since a November 2015 event in Toronto, according to the form. He has said he didn’t think he would continue to give paid speeches if his wife became president; instead he made it clear he wants to have an "economic role" under president Hillary.
In addition to the speech income, Hillary Clinton received more than $5 million in book royalties since the beginning of 2015, and Bill Clinton was paid by the Varkey GEMS Foundation, an education charity, and Laureate Education Inc., a for-profit company. Bill Clinton isn’t required to reveal his exact earnings from that consulting work. The couple hasn’t yet released their 2015 tax returns, though they have released decades of past returns.
The 2015 disclosure is in addition to previously released speech details which we had broken out previously. From 2013 until 2015 Bill Clinton has been paid $26.6 million for 94 speeches; Hillary's grand total is slightly less: $21.7 million for 92 private appearances.
Below we present the full breakdown of every publicly disclosed speech event by Hillary Clinton, together with the associated fee for the 2013-2015 period.
And likewise for Bill Clinton:
And a visual way of showing the above data.
Hillary:
Bill:
Source: Hillaryclinton.con and Politco
The grand total comes down to just about $55 million in speech fees for the two Clintons since 2013.
The Clinton campaign was quick to take a jab at Trump following her disclosure. "Despite Donald Trump’s boasting, submitting his personal financial disclosure form is no breakthrough for transparency,” Christina Reynolds, a Clinton spokeswoman, said in a statement.
"The true test for Donald Trump,” she continued, “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."
Trump should simply respond by saying he will reveal his tax return the moment Hillary releases her Goldman transcripts.