Obama camp offers deal for five years of Romney taxes

Coming on the heels of Mitt Romney’s claim Thursday that he had paid at least a 13 percent rate on his taxes the past 10 years, the Obama campaign penned an open letter today, offering a deal if Romney releases five years tax returns.

The letter, from campaign manager Jim Messina to Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades, says that "if the Governor will release five years of returns, I commit in turn that we will not criticize him for not releasing more--neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign."

He goes on to call the request, which covers returns from 2007 to 2012, “not unreasonable,” claiming that it would answer questions about Romney’s effective rate in other years, in addition to providing information on foreign accounts, foreign investments and tax shelters. Romney has thus far released his 2010 return and an estimate for 2011.

However, the no-criticism deal does not appear to extend to the information that is contained in the tax returns.