President Barack Obama declined to back up the accusation by one of his top campaign officials that Mitt Romney may have committed a felony by falsely reporting his roles at Bain Capital on SEC filings.

Asked by an Ohio TV station on Monday if he stood by the charge -- lodged last week by deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter -- the president declined to bite.

"I think that the issue here is simply for Mr. Romney to talk about his business background in a way that jibes with the facts and is clear," he replied in an interview with WEWS broadcast on Tuesday. "That's what's expected of any presidential candidate. When I ran for office, people asked me a whole bunch of questions about all kinds of issues. We released my tax returns. Everybody knew everything about me, because of the importance of this office."