Bernie And Jane Sanders Lawyer Up For Bank Fraud Probe

Jane Sanders, the wife of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is facing charges for the time she allegedly used her political influence to obtain bank loans for Burlington College, an institution that is now defunct, so that the college could purchase its former North Avenue campus. It was revealed Thursday that Jane has hired lawyers now that the Department Of Justice has taken over the probe into her past financial dealings.

Burlington College was a private, non-profit liberal arts college that was placed on probation in July 2014 for failing to meet the standards regarding financial resources and ultimately closed down on May 27, 2016. Jane Sanders served as the president of the college from 2004 to 2011, Politico reported.

The couple has chosen eminent lawyer and ardent Bernie supporter Rich Cassidy and the renowned defense attorney Larry Robbins. Robbins has also represented big names such as I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and disgraced former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson. The attorney of Vermont, who will be handling the prosecutor’s case, is yet to be appointed by President Trump’s administration.

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In May 2017, Bernie tried to field off a question regarding the ongoing investigation into the possible fraudulence committed by his wife, but a reporter from Burlington TV station WCAX refused to back off. Finally, Bernie decided to answer.

“Well, as you know,” he said, “it would be improp— this implication came from Donald Trump’s campaign manager in Vermont. Let me leave it at that, because it would be improper at this point for me to say anything more.”

Even though the Vermont Sen. was done talking about the incident, he elaborated some more when pressed by the reporter who asked him if the news was nonsense.

“Yes,” Bernie responded. “It is nonsense. But now that there is a process going on, which was initiated by Trump’s campaign manager, somebody who does this all of the time, has gone after a number of Democrats and progressives in this state. It would be improper at this point for me to add any more to that.”

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The attorney in question that Bernie was talking about is Brady Toensing, who chaired Trump’s Vermont campaign. It is Toensing’s letter to the attorney for Vermont that put the FBI on the trail. In another email that Toensing sent to Politico, he mentioned that the investigation in question had been ongoing on for more than a year and started under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

The investigation surrounding Jane’s financial dealings came to light in April 2017 when VTDigger, an online news outlet, broke the exclusive story that the attorney for Vermont and an FBI agent had reviewed Burlington College records during a then-undisclosed investigation. A former employee of Burlington College was also subpoenaed regarding the matter in February 2016.

The lawyers representing Jane at present have contacted the former employee as well as a couple of former Burlington College trustees to get more information in the case.

“They wanted information on what I had been asked by the FBI. They were trying to get clarification on what the accusations are because they had not been contacted by anybody as to an investigation,” said Coralee Holm, the former dean of operations and advancement for Burlington College, VTDigger reported.