[T]he explosive allegation that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pressured a bank to loan money to a college run by his wife come from a former bank employee with no direct knowledge of the loan.
Republican attorney Brady Toensing sent a letter in May 2016 saying he was approached and informed that Sanders “improperly pressured” People’s United Bank to loan money to Burlington College when the senator’s wife was the school’s president.
Toensing’s source for that information was House Minority Leader Don Turner, R-Milton, a revelation first reported by Seven Days on Friday.
Turner said the allegations arose from a conversation he had with three bankers at a Montpelier restaurant around the time the school closed.
In an interview with VTDigger, Turner declined to name those present, but he said the topic was broached in casual conversation. He repeatedly described what he heard as “hearsay,” because the former People’s United Bank employee was not involved in the loan and was no longer employed at People’s when the conversation took place.
“The substance was the bank was reluctant to do the loan, and (the former employee) had heard that the Senator’s office had encouraged the bank to do the loan, and that’s what the conversation was about,” Turner said.
Turner also said that the former People’s employee told those present for the lunch that the bank responded to the pressure by writing loan terms so stringent it would be impossible for the school to honor them.
The Republican lawmaker said he related the details of that conversation to Toensing, and Toensing confirmed Sunday that Turner was the source he cited in his letter to federal authorities.
Turner had hoped not to become involved in the allegations against Sanders, but he said he also hopes that federal investigators will come forward with the facts.
“I’m not out there head hunting Bernie Sanders. At the same time, no one is above the law,” Turner said.
Toensing said that investigative leads are often hearsay, and it doesn’t diminish the fact that a former bank official told Turner that Sanders applied pressure to obtain the loan.
“Hearsay is used by investigators to develop direct evidence, and since it came from someone within the bank it is significant,” Toensing said. “I stand by what I have said based on what I was told. It is time for the Senator himself to end his silence and answer questions about what contact his office had with the bank about this loan.”
The loan in question was $6.7 million People’s United Bank provided Burlington College in 2010, when Jane Sanders was president. Burlington College used that and other loans to purchase a 33-acre lakefront campus.
After VTDigger reported in 2015 that Jane Sanders overstated pledged donations used as collateral in the People’s loan agreement, Toensing sent an initial letter to federal authorities requesting an investigation of the loan and the land deal.
Emails obtained in April show that the FBI and the U.S. attorney for Vermont are investigating Burlington College. Former school employees who were contacted by federal investigators say the probe began in February 2016 and relates to the loan and a land purchase.
Burlington College closed in May 2016, around the time of Turner’s conversation with the bankers. School officials cited debt from the bank loan and land deal as the primary reason the school was shutting down.
Toensing sent his letter making allegations against the senator shortly after the school closed.
In an interview with MSNBC Thursday, Sanders called the allegation that his office pressured People’s United Bank to make the loan an “absolute lie.” During another interview with CNN, Sanders praised his wife’s stewardship of Burlington College but refused to address the FBI’s Burlington College probe. Jane Sanders has hired prominent attorneys to represent her in the matter.
