Jane Sanders Escapes Charges After Investigation of Burlington College Land Deal
“She has said from the beginning that she did nothing wrong and she is pleased that the matter has come to a conclusion”
Jane Sanders, wife of Vermont senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, has been cleared after an investigation of a land deal at Burlington College during her time as school president, which precipitated its closure in May of 2016.
For some background, here’s an excerpt from a post I wrote in May of 2016:
A major pillar of the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign is free college. In perhaps the most tragically ironic political metaphor of this election, Burlington College, a small privately owned school in Vermont is now going out of business, largely due to decisions made by Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane, who served as the college’s president for seven years.
When Jane Sanders was hired by Burlington College in 2004, the school was already facing financial problems but was able to maintain day to day operations for several years.
Things began to change in 2010, when Jane Sanders led the school to a financial decision which would forever alter the school’s destiny.
Under her leadership, Burlington College purchased a lakefront property from the Catholic Diocese of Burlington for $10 million dollars with the goal of expanding the school’s campus…
Coupled with the continuing bad financial news for Burlington College, came allegations from the Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which in April of this year announced they wanted Jane Sanders investigated for fraud.
According to Michael Stratford of Politico, the investigation is now over and Jane Sanders will not be charged:
No charges in land deal led by Bernie Sanders’ wife, aide says
Federal prosecutors have ended an investigation into a land deal overseen by Jane Sanders, wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, without bringing any charges, an aide said Tuesday.
Investigators had been looking into a $10 million real estate deal that Jane Sanders led when she was president of the now-defunct Burlington College between 2004 and 2011.
“Jane Sanders has been informed that the U.S. Attorney in Vermont has closed its investigation of the Burlington College land deal and has decided not to bring charges of any kind,” Jeff Weaver, a Sanders adviser, said in a statement.
Elizabeth Landers of CNN has more and provides a refreshing level of scrutiny:
Adviser says Bernie Sanders’ wife cleared in college land deal investigation
A top adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that the Vermont independent’s wife, Jane Sanders, has been recently told by the US attorney in Vermont that they have closed an investigation into a land deal involving Burlington College during Jane Sanders’ presidency…
“Jane is grateful the investigation has come to an end. She has said from the beginning that she did nothing wrong and she is pleased that the matter has come to a conclusion,” Weaver said.
Jane Sanders was the president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. The college announced its closure in 2016 due to debt it had taken on from a real estate deal the school made during her tenure. CNN reviewed the loan application for the deal, which was signed by Jane Sanders. The loan application stated the college would take in millions of dollars’ worth of pledged donations, many of which never materialized.
This quote from Bernie Sanders drips with irony:
“I think it’s fairly pathetic that when people are involved in public life, it’s not only that they get attacked, but it’s their wives and their families that get attacked,” said Bernie Sanders, who said his wife had left the college “in better shape than it had ever been.”
How nice of Bernie to stick up for the wives and children of public figures. He may want to relay that message to some of his comrades on the left. I’m sure Tucker Carlson and his family would appreciate it.
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Comments
This stinks. From what I’ve read, there was substantial evidence that she deliberately lied in the bank filings she submitted to get the loan (for the property that her school didn’t need, and couldn’t afford).
But you’ve got to give her husband credit for his chutzpah. Saying that his wife left the school better off, when she essentially bankrupted it, takes some damn nerve.
Mah. It’s hardly that surprising. But the net result of thinning the herd of otherwise too abundant and mostly useless liberal arts colleges is a good thing. Arts are a necessary part of education. But we certainly don’t need as many institutions that are exclusively devoted to liberal arts. They survive only because of tax dollars essentially being used to create demand, and not because they naturally meet demand.
Somebody had to train Ocasio-Cortez’s economics professors.
“He may want to relay that message to some of his comrades on the left.”
Mike Perhaps he believes in Saul Alinskys Rule number 4.
@casualobserver
Liberal arts college != art school.
Well, not exactly. Many professionals with advanced degrees start with a liberal arts foundation. It has just become so distorted in the last decade, or so. Used to be a place to follow sound reasoning and debate some of the greatest thinkers throughout time. Now it is fast become more exclusively a place to indoctrinate people with the “correct” SJW thinking and to actually SHUN those thinkers of yesteryear for not complying with modern SJW thinking.
I’d rather hire a lawyer that has stretched their reasoning muscles by reading and debating centuries of philosophers than one that simply looks at law as the way to change today’s culture into the mold you want (progressives). Just one example.
“Jane Sanders was the president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. The college announced its closure in 2016 due to debt it had taken on from a real estate deal the school made during her tenure.”
A Leftist pissing away other peoples money? How unusual.
And no doubt Jane paid back her hefty salary for all those years of malfeasance.
Of course she did. Her and Bernie don’t *need* 3 homes…
Yes, but, in 2011, The Daily Beast and Newsweek ranked Burlington College as the number-one school in the United States for free-spirited students. Then again, there’s a big difference between “free spirited” and “free of charge,” and what does one do with a degree from a defunct school dedicated to free spirits anyway?
In other news, the school’s regional accreditor (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) placed Burlington College on probation in 2014 due to its weak finances. If the lender was not aware of this, surely it should have been: did they fail to do due diligence?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/college-rankings/2011/free-spirited.burlington-college.html
laws are for the Little People.
“…she did nothing wrong…”
Nor did she do anything right…
Of course she does, because the new Nobility never have to pay for their actions.
So, according to Bernie Sanders, being defunct is better than being a greedy but unprofitable capitalistic institution run by the wife of America’s most famed hypocritical Socialist.
The idea that an investigation closed without charges being filed is a far cry from “I have done nothing wrong”, just as a “not guilty” verdict is the equivalent of actual innocence. It means that the investigators did not find sufficient evidence to satisfy whatever statute they would base charges on.
They can know in their hearts that she defrauded the diocese and/or the lender, but they cannot develop the evidence that would hold up to overcome the predictable political storm the filing of charges would generate. This is real life, not a Law and Order episode.
Because of course she won’t.
only in a nation of laws do criminals get charged with crimes and face trial.
not her, not Hillary or Comey, or Brennan or any of the rest of the Swamp.