Was Bernie Sanders blackmailed in the 2016 election?

Senator Bernie Sanders official Senate picture. 

This is not going to be a traditional post. When I originally had the idea for this, I thought it would be a good subject for a "tweetstorm" and not a actual blog post as it is mostly speculation and since it is old news. But I was left with the impression yesterday that Twitter may be throttling posts about Sanders as though I had 16,000 impressions yesterday on Twitter, only a few were for my tweets about Sanders. So a blog post it is. 

I was struck last year when Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton and campaigned with her. Clinton famously coordinated with the media and the DNC to ensure that she won the primaries which violates the rules of the party. Essentially the game was rigged against Sanders from the start. My question was what on earth would motivate someone to back up a person that cheated against you? 

The common theory is that Sanders did so for political reasons. He knew that he would have a difficult time in the senate if he didn't back Clinton because though he isn't a Democrat he still caucuses with them and works with them frequently. He also didn't like Donald Trump and wanted him to lose. For a long time I accepted those answers and, I must note, there isn't anything that disproves these interpretations. Everything that will follow is speculation.

As you may be aware of, Sanders' wife Jane is in some legal trouble. She was the president of Burlington College between 2004 and 2011. During that period she is accused of bank fraud for lying about how big the college's endowment was so they could get a lone to purchase land from the Catholic Archdioceses. That deal fell apart and she resigned, the college fell apart and she is now under FBI investigation. 

It is unclear when that investigation began. The news of the story broke long after the election was finished. What does seem clear is that people knew about the story in 2016 or even 2015. The college went bankrupt then and given how important Sanders was I am guessing oppo researchers knew that she could be charged with bank fraud. Supposedly the source of the complaint was the Vermont RNC, so if the Republicans knew about it surly the Democrats did as well.

So here is my theory. And I want to stress that this is just a theory and I can't prove any of it. But here it goes. What if Bernie Sanders was blackmailed? Everyone knew about the Burlington College story and that there was likely to be a bank fraud investigation. Everyone also knew that if Bernie Sanders had chosen to make a huge fuss of out of the primary rigging or ran as an independent it would have probably cost Hillary Clinton the election. 

What if there was a quid pro quo? The DNC or someone in the Clinton Campaign says "tough business with your wife. Be a shame if the FBI comes after her. But I bet if Clinton wins they could be convinced to back down". Probably not in so many words but Sanders gets the message anyways. He backs down and then does everything in his power to get Clinton to win because he knows if he doesn't his wife is probably going to prison and his political image will be forever tarnished. 

Of course Clinton lost and the FBI investigation continued with Jane Sanders. Clinton wasn't in power so she couldn't order the FBI to back down. Sanders is screwed now and feels betrayed since he lost a lot of credibility and got nothing for it. Perhaps that is what is inspiring him to consider a run in 2020? He may very well want revenge for this scheme. 

Is it true though? We have no way of knowing. And it really is more likely that explanation above, that he wanted Trump to lose and didn't want to anger the Democrats, is correct. Still, it was a thought I had and I wanted it written down somewhere. For what it's worth though there was a email from Robby Mook to John Podesta that got leaked to Wikileaks that said there was some kind of arrangement between Clinton and Sanders where they spoke of "leverage", but that's circumstantial evidence at best. Without any other evidence this will likely just remain speculation on my part.