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Mitt Romney Sees Only One Possible Explanation For Why Trump Won't Release His Tax Returns

Trump Must Be Sitting On Tax Return 'Bombshell': Romney
Former Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticizes current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Jim Urquhart / Reuters
Former Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticizes current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

No stranger to questions about his taxes and wealth, former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Wednesday criticized Donald Trump's decision to withhold his tax returns from the public, calling the move "disqualifying" and speculating that Trump is hiding "a bombshell."

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he does not plan to release his tax returns -- as is tradition for candidates for elected office -- because he is being audited.

Romney responded on Facebook, arguing that making tax returns public provides valuable information to voters. He accused Trump of using the audit as an excuse to avoid further scrutiny and suggested that he may be concealing something that could negatively impact his candidacy, an attack Romney first made earlier this year.

"There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them," Romney wrote on Wednesday. "Given Mr. Trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it's a bombshell of unusual size."

When he ran for president in 2012, Romney initially hesitated to release his tax returns because of the scrutiny they would bring to his business experience and wealth, but by January of that year, he relented.

Tax experts have called into question Trump's use of the audit as a reason not to release his tax returns. Trump has claimed that the Internal Revenue Service is examining "four or five years" of his taxes, but the agency typically focuses on three years of taxes.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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