Clintons made $109 million since 2000, returns show

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have made $109 million since 2000, including $51 million in speech income for Bill Clinton, according to eight years of tax information released on Friday.

The couple paid taxes of $33 million and gave more than $10 million to charity between 2000, their last year in the White House, and 2007, the records released by the campaign showed.

Clinton had been challenged by rival Barack Obama to release her tax returns as the two Democratic presidential contenders duel for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's election.

Obama made his tax returns from 2000 to 2006 public last week, renewing a battle between the two camps over transparency. Obama, an Illinois senator, has accused Clinton of being secretive and shielding documents from the public.

Presidential candidates often release their tax returns, although they are not required to do so, but Clinton's failure to release her recent returns had become a target of increased criticism from Obama's camp.

"The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service. None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information," Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said.

(Writing by John Whitesides, editing by Lori Santos)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http:blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)