Jane Sanders, the wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will reportedly not face charges after federal prosecutors wrapped up their investigation into a soured land deal involving Burlington College that was brokered while she was president of the institution.
“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, who served as Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign manager, wrote in a Tuesday statement, according to CNN and Politico.
“Jane is grateful that the investigation has come to an end,” Weaver 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.”
Kraig LaPorte, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont, told the Washington Examiner her team did not have a comment on its probe into Jane Sanders. A representative for Sanders did not immediately respond to the Examiner‘s inquiries.
Prosecutors began presenting evidence to a grand jury in mid-2017 following allegations Sanders overstated “confirmed” donation amounts in 2010 when trying to secure a $6.7 million loan from a bank. The loan helped finance the purchase of a $10 million waterfront property owned by the local Roman Catholic diocese, allowing Burlington College to expand its campus.
Sanders was president of the small liberal arts college from 2004 to 2011. The school closed in May 2016 with only 70 enrolled students after struggling with the repercussions of the deal.
The inquiry into Sanders was sparked in early 2016 because of a tip received by the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s Office from Brady Toensing, the state’s former chairman for President Trump’s presidential campaign, five years following Sanders’ departure.
Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats and in 2016 ran for the party’s presidential nomination, had previously blasted the investigation for being politically motivated.
