Clintons report $25M earned from speeches

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton reported Friday that they earned more than $25 million combined in speaking fees since January 2014.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign revealed the income in a personal financial disclosure report filed with the Federal Election Commission. The report, required of every candidate running for the White House, also shows that Hillary Clinton earned more than $5 million from her 2014 memoirs, Hard Choices.

The details of the report were described by a Clinton campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The report was not yet publicly available from the FEC at the time but was expected to be released publicly later Friday.

While Hillary Clinton has begun her second campaign for president by casting herself as a champion for middle-class voters, she has long drawn criticism from Republicans about the wealth she and Bill Clinton have amassed since Bill Clinton left the White House. That includes their ability to command six-figure fees for delivering speeches. The finances behind the family's charitable foundation have also generated scrutiny because of its acceptance of donations from foreign governments.

During last year's book tour, Hillary Clinton told an interviewer that her family was "dead broke" when Bill Clinton left the White House, which Republicans said showed a lack of understanding of the needs of typical families.

Liberals have also questioned whether Hillary Clinton is too closely tied to Wall Street, pointing to her days representing New York in the U.S. Senate. They are also wary that she might not aggressively seek to regulate the nation's financial industry and serve as an adequate bulwark against economic inequality.

The campaign official said the FEC filing will show that the couple earned more than $25 million for more than 100 paid speeches between January 2014 and May 2015. That would average about $250,000 per speech.

The report will also list assets of between $5 million and $25 million in a mutual fund managed by Vanguard that the Clintons set up in the past year. The couple did not earn any capital gains during the period and paid an effective tax rate of more than 30 percent in the 2014 tax year, the official said.

Hillary Clinton last filed a financial disclosure report during her final year as secretary of state in 2012, when she reported that her and her husband's wealth was between $4 million and $20 million.

Much of that income came from the lucrative speeches and appearances made by Bill Clinton around the world. A recent review of the Clintons' disclosures and State Department records found that Bill Clinton had been paid at least $50 million for his appearances between 2009 and 2012, the four years that Hillary Clinton served as the nation's top diplomat.

Federal candidates are required to file personal financial disclosure forms within 30 days of announcing their candidacies or on May 15. Several Republican candidates in the race have filed requests for deadline extensions.

Each disclosure form lists candidates' assets and liabilities, and provides a snapshot of their annual incomes. But federal rules allow those figures to be reported in wide ranges instead of specific amounts -- allowing candidates, for example, to report a large asset as worth between $1 million and $5 million.

Any income exceeding $200 has to be reported, and most assets worth more than $1,000 at the end of a calendar year must be disclosed.

Assets can include bank accounts, real estate, insurance plans, stock and securities holdings. Liabilities can include loans, mortgages and other debts.

Annual income includes not only salaries, but also stock, securities and real estate profits, interest, book profits and speeches, and other honoraria.

A Section on 05/16/2015

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