Mitt Romney said Friday that Donald Trump will never release his tax returns because "if he released his taxes, he would lose support."
"There's something in the taxes that's worse than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue," the former Massachusetts governor told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "That suggests there could be all sorts of things that could be troubling there."
Romney, 69, who lost to President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, was
referencing Trump's comment in January that he would not lose voter support even if he stood on Fifth Avenue in New York City "and shoot somebody."
Last month, Romney called on Trump to
release his tax information.
He told Blitzer Friday that "your imagination can run wild" on what could be in the presumptive Republican nominee's returns.
"Doesn't pay taxes. Doesn't have much income. Receives income from unsavory sources. Ownership in enterprises perhaps associated with unsavory enterprises or nations or groups. Who knows what it can be.
"This is a person that never had his personal life subject to an audit that can be potentially prosecuted by individuals that are assessing whether it is improperly stated," Romney said. "The only place you can get that kind of audit where the penalties for lying are criminal is with someone's tax returns."
The former candidate noted that every presidential nominee over the past four decades has released their tax data "so that people could say, 'all right, I am getting a clear view of who this person really is' — and he doesn't want people to see that.
"There's no question in my mind he will never release his tax returns," Romney said. "He will follow one excuse after the other to say why he can't and will never release them.
"There's something in there that he feels is worse for him than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue," he added. "I think the American people have every right to see what that is."
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