Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, played a big role in the demise of a Vermont college that went belly up shortly after she made a huge financial move while she was its president.
As the head of the college in 2010, she orchestrated the purchase of 33 acres of lakefront property on Lake Champlain for $10 million. The tiny college had only 200 students at the time, but Sanders said the huge debt — $6.5 million — could be covered by expanded enrollment and new donations.
Sanders was drummed out as college president the following year. In 2014, the college was placed on financial probation, leading to the ouster of Sanders’ successor. In 2016, unable to gin up even enough money for operating costs, the college shut down altogether.
Says the New York Times:
To finance the land purchase, the college borrowed from a bank and obtained additional financing from the diocese, according to David V. Dunn, a Burlington College trustee at the time. The college needed to demonstrate that it had the financial resources to pay the bank loan, which it did with Ms. Sanders’s assurances that it would receive $2.6 million in donations and increase its enrollment, Mr. Dunn said.
“Neither of those were true,” he said in an interview Monday.
Some of the pledges turned out to be overstated, and enrollment did not increase. Ms. Sanders was forced to resign in 2011. Financially strained, the college closed last year.
So, there’s some there there (when the FBI starts an investigation, there’s at least enough to warrant a probe).
But now, Sanders is claiming that the FBI’s fraud investigation is all about sexism.
“I find it incredibly sexist that basically he’s going after my husband by destroying my reputation, and that’s not OK,” Sanders told The Boston Globe.
The FBI investigation began in early 2016 after Brady Toensing, a one-time official for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Vermont and vice chairman of the state Republican Party, filed the complaint.
“My goal is for a full, fair, and impartial investigation — that’s all I care about,” he told The Globe last week. “That people be treated the same regardless of status in this system.”
The Republican National Committee mocked the new sexism claim.
“Jane Sanders must think Hillary Clinton’s campaign was sexist for viewing the alleged bank fraud as a major issue, too,” said Michael Ahrens, Rapid Response Director for the RNC.
What’s more, the dirty tricksters in the Hillary Clinton campaign had weighed in using Sanders’ role in the college’s failure against her husband, leaked emails show.
But hey, if the probe is sexist, well, the FBI should just stop it, apologize and move on. Right?