Schweizer: Bernie ‘Clearly Seems to Be Leveraging His Position’ to Help His Wife Profit

Breitbart News senior contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer, the author of the book Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite, on Wednesday doubled down on saying 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his family have “become quite wealthy through his public service.”

Schweizer detailed on “Fox & Friends” how Sanders’ wife, Jane, has been profiting while working as a media buyer despite having no background in advertising or media buying.

Partial transcript as follows:

This goes back to the 1980s when Bernie was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. One of the first things is he put his then girlfriend, later wife on the payroll. The city council objected and said, “You can’t do this.” Bernie ignored them, and that began this pattern of steering money, taxpayer money and campaign money, to his family.

His wife set up a media buying business registered to their home in Vermont and started doing media buying for her husband’s campaign. She had no background in advertising, no background in media buying. And the dirty little secret here is, Steve, is that when you do a media buy, the buyer is entitled to a commission of 10 and 15%. It can be quite lucrative. … We know that at least $150,000 was funneled to Jane Sanders this way. We also found out, Steve, in a couple cases allies of Bernie Sanders who ran for governor of Vermont in 2000 and ran for lieutenant governor in 2004 were expecting Bernie’s endorsement. Bernie didn’t give it. And there was controversy — “Why is Bernie not giving it?” They both ended up hiring Jane as their media buyer and a couple weeks later bernie decided to endorse these candidates. So, he clearly seems to be leveraging his position as well. 

Schweizer acknowledged that this is not “illegal,” but he said the issue is there is a clear conflict of interest and hypocrisy by Sanders because he has vowed on the campaign trail to end corruption.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent