Criminal Probe into Jane Sanders' Former Employer Involves Grand Jury

The criminal investigation into a land deal undertaken by Vermont’s now-defunct Burlington College when Jane Sanders, wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, was college president, was reported Monday to have come to involve a grand jury.

The FBI investigation involves a series of potentially fraudulent loan applications for Burlington College between 2004 and 2011. Sanders herself is reported to have inaccurately inflated donation figures to secure the loans. The Sanders’s reportedly already have retained legal representation in the case Sen. Sanders has characterized as politically motivated.

A new layer of seriousness was added Monday when VTDigger reported the U.S. Attorney’s office in Vermont had interviewed Robin Lloyd, a former Burlington College trustee, before a grand jury last October. “I helped provide a timeline of what happened — and when — in terms of development,” Lloyd said. “It was general questions about donors, and money coming in.”

“They’re trying to pull together where did the money come from to enable Burlington College to convince (People’s United Bank) and the diocese to go ahead with the deal,” Lloyd later told the Burlington Free Press about her appearance before the grand jury.

It was not clear from these reports if the grand jury, a powerful investigative tool used by prosecutors, had been empaneled specifically for this investigation or if any other Burlington College loan witnesses had been interviewed before that grand jury.

At least one Sanders family spokesman was defiant at the reports.

“We have absolutely no reason to believe that there is a grand jury empaneled to examine Burlington College, Jane Sanders, or any aspect of Dr. Sanders’ service as president of Burlington College. As best we can tell, the current news reports are simply recycling an account of a government interview of a witness from several months ago. Nothing new here,” Former Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told local Vermont site Seven Days on Sunday.

Sen. Sanders’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.