Sanders Family Disputes Report of Escalating Burlington College Probe

[GaryCnf]

46. There is no dispute whether

a grand jury is empaneled. Federal grand juries are empaneled for months at a time (as another poster pointed out, possibly 18 months at a time or even longer) and act on dozens of cases over that time. A sitting grand jury assisting law enforcement by issuing a subpoena to recalcitrant witness or by issuing subpoenas for documents is something that federal grand juries do all the time.

The meme being spread is completely different. That meme is that a grand jury has been empaneled for the specific purpose of investigating Jane Sanders/Burlington College. That is clearly the insinuation of the VTDigger story which makes a point of describing the issuance of subpoenas as an escalation of the investigation.

While it is undoubtedly true that empaneling a special grand jury to investigate Sanders/Burlington College would indeed be an escalation of the investigation, the mere fact that a recalcitrant witness or documents held by third parties were subpoenaed is simply not evidence that a special grand jury has been empaneled or that criminal charges are being considered. As I have explained repeatedly, given the Loyd's account of why she was subpoenaed (which fits right in to the decidedly insignificant use of a sitting grand jury I just described), the statement made by the real estate mogul whose name escapes me that he had been interviewed by the FBI in December (which is inconsistent with there being a special investigative grand jury, or a grand jury considering charges, because in either instance he would have been called before the grand jury itself), and the length of time that has been spent investigating a really quite simple financial transaction with no indictments being handed down, these recent "revelations" point not to an escalation, but rather to making sure that there are no loose ends before putting Toensing's clearly politically-motivated complaint to rest.

As you mention, the accusations made against Jane Sanders and the Burlington College Board of Directors were very serious. That, however, has little to do with whether the breathless claims of an escalation in the investigation are supported or refuted by what we know about Ms. Loyd's experiences and the experiences of the other persons from whom information has been sought.

Btw, thank you for your reasoned response. It is appreciated and respected.