[I]n cable news appearances this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., dismissed as politically motivated an FBI investigation into a Burlington College land deal orchestrated by his wife and denied allegations he pressured a bank to loan the college money.
The national media have begun peppering Vermont’s junior senator with questions about the allegations after news broke last week that Jane Sanders has hired high-profile lawyers to represent her in the probe.
During a Thursday interview on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” which focused largely on health care, the senator described as an “absolute lie” the allegation that he improperly used his office to help secure a bank loan for Burlington College while his wife was president there.
Bernie Sanders first tore into the source without mentioning him by name: “And do you know where that allegation comes from?” Sanders asked Hayes. “That allegation came from the vice chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and Donald Trump’s campaign state director.”
The accusation stems from a May 2016 letter sent to federal officials by Republican attorney Brady Toensing, in which he states that he was “recently approached and informed that Senator Bernie Sanders’ office improperly pressured People’s United Bank to approve the loan application.”
Toensing has not identified the source of that allegation, but in a recent email he told VTDigger the information came from a current legislator. Toensing said the lawmaker told him that, while sitting at lunch with two bankers, “a former People’s bank executive complained that Senator Sanders’ office pressured the bank to make the loan to Burlington College.”
“‘Make it happen,’ they were told,” according to Toensing’s account of that conversation. Toensing did not identify any of those present for the conversation.
In a Tuesday interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Sanders called the allegations against his wife “pathetic” but declined to address whether she is being investigated by the FBI.
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who was fired by the Trump administration after refusing to resign, weighed in on Twitter criticizing Bernie Sanders’ response.
All politicians hate investigations. All cry “political motivation.” Democrat, republican, socialist, whig. Oldest & lamest play in the book https://t.co/yPDdgSTMGl
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) June 28, 2017
Shortly after VTDigger reported in April that the FBI and U.S. attorney for Vermont were investigating Burlington College, former college staff confirmed that investigators had subpoenaed records relating to the 2010 land deal and Jane Sanders’ tenure as president from 2004 to 2011.
Toensing’s original request for an investigation into Jane Sanders’ role in the land deal cited reporting by VTDigger in 2015 that pledges the college used as collateral to obtain a $6.7 million loan were overstated.
On Burnett’s show, Bernie Sanders cut off the anchor before she could complete her question. “My wife, my wife — excuse me, excuse me — my wife is the most honest person I know,” he said. “When she came to that college it was failing academically and financially. When she left it, it was in better shape than it had ever been.”
An audited financial statement for Burlington College from the fiscal year in which Jane Sanders resigned — which ended in June 2012 — shows the college was not in good financial shape.
It states that the college had $10.7 million in debt and “negative working capital” of $304,743, meaning its liabilities in the next year exceeded its available assets by that amount.
The audit also says Burlington College had an “unrestricted undesignated net assets deficit” of nearly $1 million, or its total liabilities exceeded its available assets by that amount.
When Burlington College closed in May 2016, school officials blamed debt from the land deal and the loss of a nearly $1 million line of credit from People’s United Bank.
In the fiscal year during which Jane Sanders departed, the audit states that Burlington College increased that line of credit from $250,000 to $750,000.
(Correction: Brady Toensing told VTDigger it was a legislator who relayed the allegation about Bernie Sanders. An earlier version of this story misstated that detail.)
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