Trump: I’ll release my taxes after audit, not after election

Donald Trump on Wednesday clarified that he will release his tax returns once his audit is completed, not after the election.

{mosads}In an interview with The Associated Press, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he would not release them before November election.

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” Trump told the AP on Tuesday, adding he’s facing an ongoing audit and doesn’t think voters care.

But on Wednesday, Trump tweeted: “In interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!”  

In interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2016

Trump’s tweet came shortly after Mitt Romney called Trump’s refusal to release his taxes “disqualifying” for the White House.

The IRS issued a statement in February saying nothing prevented Trump from releasing his tax returns, after his opponents called for him to do so.

Trump’s campaign released a letter from his attorneys in March saying his returns had been “under continuous examination” since 2002. He has continued to decline calls to release his returns since then.

Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, speculated in March that Trump was trying to hide something in his financial past. 

“It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service,” Romney wrote Wednesday on Facebook.

While releasing tax returns isn’t legally required of presidential candidates, it is customary, and Trump would be the first major candidate to withhold them since 1976, according to The New York Times.

—Updated at 5:09 p.m.