MONTPELIER, Vt. — Federal prosecutors in Vermont have closed their investigation into a college land deal involving the wife of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and decided not to charge her, a spokesman for the couple said Tuesday.
Jane Sanders was informed by the U.S. attorney's office that she would not be charged, Sanders spokesman Jeff Weaver said.
Jane Sanders is grateful the investigation is over.
"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," Weaver said in an email.
U.S. attorney's office spokesman Kraig LaPorte said he could not comment.
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Federal investigators had been looking into the finances behind a real estate deal for the now defunct Burlington College, where Jane Sanders served as president from 2004 to 2011.
In 2010, she had worked out a $10 million deal for the college to buy 32 acres of waterfront land in Burlington on Lake Champlain and a 77,000-square-foot former orphanage and administrative offices of Vermont's Roman Catholic Church, which needed the money to settle a series of priest sex abuse cases.
Jane Sanders, a longtime political adviser to her husband, promised at the time that the deal would be paid for with increases in enrollment and about $2.7 million in donations. She left the school a year later. The enrollment increase and the promised donations didn't happen and by 2014, the college had about $11 million debt. It sold much of the waterfront land and closed in 2016.
Weaver has said the allegations were politically motivated attacks. The initial complaint was filed in early 2016 by attorney Brady Toensing, who served as the Vermont campaign chairman for Donald Trump's presidential run.
Toensing did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.