Vermont's US Attorney clears Jane Sanders of Burlington College wrongdoing

[Donkees]

Link to tweet

BURLINGTON, Vt. —

Sen. Bernie Sanders' wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, will not face any criminal charges related to a land deal at the former Burlington College.

U.S. Attorney for Vermont Christina Nolan closed the investigation into any wrongdoing by Jane Sanders.

A spokesman for Jane Sanders made the announcement Tuesday afternoon.

"Jane is grateful that the investigation has come to an end," he said. "As she has said from the beginning she has done nothing wrong and Jane is pleased that the matter has now come to a conclusion."

[QC]

1. FAKE NEWS!!! FAKE NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hortensis]

15. Jeff Weaver said the US Attorney won't bring criminal charges,

not that Jane was cleared of wrongdoing, but other than that I wouldn't call this fake news, QC. It's over, and most of us are not Vermonters, so let's let them move on as far as we're concerned.

[George II]

24. Precisely. People should read Weaver's and the US Attorney's actual words.

[JCanete]

2. Oh NO! I predict this post won't sink after 4 or 5 responses because everybody who

breathlessly repeated this "scandal" will now come here and have a come to Jesus moment, admitting that they just wanted to believe anything that made Sanders dirty, and that they now regret leaping before looking.

[Raster]

3. That's a laugh...

...The Sanders schadenfreude posse will avoid this OP like the plague. Sorry, but Bernie and Jane have been the stars of just about every conspiracy theory possible. What amazes me is many of the persons that decried the very same treatment of Hillary Clinton rushed to judgment against Bernie and Jane Sanders with eager aplomb.

[JCanete]

4. damn, if only the title had been worded differently, this would have been like flies to honey...

"Jane Sanders Scandal Comes to a Head!"....nothing comes out.

[progressoid]

30. I'd like to rec this post

for using the phrase, "with eager aplomb."

[LanternWaste]

6. Must be a tough old world...

Can't even get conversions designed to point fingers out in the public anymore. What's the damn world comin' to when good old fashioned petulance is mocked.

Good luck stormin' 'da castle!

[JCanete]

7. the OP isn't designed to do that. For my part if I ever buy into something that turns out to be

false, I guarantee you, I will admit to it, and I'll be ashamed to have been so ready to believe the thing. I try not to.


For your part, I think you missed my point. If anybody did come out and say that, I'd be amazed and entirely supportive. People can make mistakes and they can learn from them. They can even continue to dislike Bernie and Jane for whatever reasons they may still have for that.

My point is we won't see anybody on these boards admit to having jumped the gun. I'm not hoping they come here to be shamed, because that would not happen, certainly not by me. I'm expecting, as I stated, that nobody who believed the scandal hook line and sinker, or at least purported to believe the scandal and perpetuated it, will come now and say that they regret fanning the flames.

If we get one...I'll come back and say I was wrong. Deal?

[Tavarious Jackson]

8. It was Jane

Who wanted the FBI to hurry up and indict Hillary.

[MrsCoffee]

9. +1

On Fox News of all places.

[JCanete]

11. not what was said was it.

[MrsCoffee]

12. Seriously?

She laughed when she said: Would be nice if the FBI would move it (investigation of Hillary's emails) along.

We all know what she was saying.

[JCanete]

13. yeah, and it was meant and even taken by cavuto, as one way or the other. She didn't say

the FBI should hurry up and indict. That's a flat-out falsehood.

[JCanete]

19. according to who, that was the whole reason Sanders took it to the convention? nt

[Tavarious Jackson]

21. According to me.

Why do you think he did? He lost in MARCH and kept going for what reason?

[JCanete]

25. to influence the democratic platform, in my humble opinion. Which is the only reason he ever ran.

To give visibility to progressive issues and hopefully pull candidates and party to the left. He had the greatest leverage by prosecuting the campaign up to the election.

[Tavarious Jackson]

22. Well.. No one will be trying to shove him down my throat.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1107119608

[JCanete]

10. where do you find that? I just went looking. Jane said there was a process and it was moving forward

and that they will find out what the situation was...and that it would be nice if the fbi moved it along. Where did she say hurry up and indict?

[Tavarious Jackson]

17. You mean Bernie supporters

were not salivating at the prospect of a Hillary indictment? Sure....

[JCanete]

18. maybe....here on DU? I care about how we do here. Bernie supporters, like

Clinton supporters, is a fairly big cross-section of the population. I would have no qualms admonishing anybody who was hoping Clinton would go down for some believed but unsubstantiated crime, and who was throwing it around among all the other shit that he or she was trying to get to stick.

[Voltaire2]

28. The assertion was that Jane Sanders

said she wanted the FBI to indict Clinton. Not some random person. But you knew that.

[Power 2 the People]

5. Finally the bullshit talking point is put to rest.

[Hortensis]

14. WaPo: "Federal prosecutors drop investigation of wife of Bernie Sanders"

The U.S. attorney in Vermont has told Jane Sanders, the wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), that the office has completed an investigation related to her stewardship of Burlington College and decided not to bring charges, a top adviser to the senator said Tuesday.

The investigation centered on a 2010 land purchase that relocated the college Jane Sanders previously ran to a new campus on more than 32 acres along Lake Champlain. While lining up a $6.7 million loan and additional financing, she told college trustees and lenders that the college had commitments for millions of dollars in donations that could be used to repay the loan, according to former trustees and state officials.

Trustees said they later discovered that many of the donors had not agreed to the amounts or the timing of the donations listed on documents Sanders provided to a state bonding agency and a bank. That led to her resignation in 2011 amid complaints from some trustees that she had provided inaccurate information, former college officials said.

Jeff Weaver, who served as campaign manager for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign and remains an adviser, said Jane Sanders had been told “in recent days” that the land deal is no longer under investigation.

“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,” Weaver said in a statement. “Jane is grateful that the investigation has come to an end. As she has said from the beginning she has done nothing wrong, and Jane is pleased that the matter has now come to a conclusion.”

Kraig LaPorte, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Vermont, would not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, in keeping with office policy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-prosecutors-drop-investigation-of-wife-of-bernie-sanders-adviser-says/2018/11/13/4b567468-e76e-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.7e79045f7f39

[SidDithers]

20. So she was responsible for the death of Burlington College...

just not criminally responsible.

You take your victories where you can get them, I guess.

Sid

[Small-Axe]

23. When did prosecutors say that Jane Sanders was cleared of any wrongdoing?

They declined to prosecute. Not the same thing.

It remains that Jane Sanders' mismanagement bankrupted Burlington College. She was not honest about donor income when she filed bank loan reports.

She took a $200,000 "golden parachute" after ruining the finances of the college and she spent $500,000 of the school's funds for her daughter to teach woodworking.

A pretty stinky affair.

If a Republican acted in the same way Bernie Sanders would be howling.

[jberryhill]

26. Prosecutors virtually never "clear" someone of "wrongdoing"

Point to some examples of that happening, as opposed to a decision to decline to prosecute.

[Small-Axe]

27. Correct. So it is false to claim she was "cleared." She wasn't.

What Jane Sanders is reported to have done in misrepresenting donations is troubling.

Filing false loan applications is grounds for being charged with bank fraud.

[George II]

31. You're correct, they never said it. See my post #29 for a clearer idea of the situation.

[JCanete]

34. Hey...keep the hope alive, am I right? I'm totally sure that Jane and Weave are going to dredge

up a story out of what has hardly been mainstream news about not being indicted, only to find out in a week or month, what-have you, that Jane is infact being indicted. , and now she's a liar to boot. What would they gain from that exactly?


None of that is proof, because as the FBI has stated, it does not make public whether or not it has concluded or even is engaged in an investigation(although it has said that it informs the parties), but if you were a betting man, I'd be very interested in what odds you'd give the likelihood of an indictment coming down the pike at this point.

[George II]

35. What does all of that mean?

[George II]

29. According to VTDigger, this may not be entirely the case:

https://vtdigger.org/2018/11/13/jane-sanders-says-federal-investigation-concluded-without-charges/

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan said he could not confirm or deny an investigation had even happened. Numerous trustees and others have reported being interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“We don’t confirm or deny the existence of an investigation or that an investigation was in play. I don’t have any information for you,” said Kraig Laporte of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Burlington.

“I understand your concern,” Laporte said when asked about the credibility of the Weaver statement. “I can say we do communicate with represented parties, but I can’t comment relative to your inquiry.”

“We can’t control what people say,” Laporte said.

[Small-Axe]

32. VT Digger is also a good source of information on the allegations made against Jane Sanders.

Local knowledge.