Three former Penn State administrators were charged on Thursday with conspiring to cover up the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier, former Vice President Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley are accused of knowing that Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing children, and conspiring to cover it up.

"This case is about three powerful and influential men who held positions at the very top of one of the most prestigious universities in the nation," state Attorney General Linda Kelly said. "Three men who used their positions at Penn State to conceal and cover up, for years, the activities of a known child predator; who allowed him to freely use university facilities and then repeatedly obstructed attempts by law enforcement and investigators to gather evidence about the Sandusky assaults which had occurred on campus.

"This was not a mistake by these men. It was not an oversight. It was not misjudgment on their part. This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials, working to actively conceal the truth, with total disregard for the children who were Sandusky's victims in this case."

Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of child molestation, and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

The three are charged with lying to the grand jury, conspiracy, failure to report suspected child abuse, criminal conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children. Curley and Schultz had earlier been charged with perjury, and faced trial early next year. These are the first criminal charges against Spanier in the case. A preliminary arraignment is scheduled for Friday in Harrisburg.

Spanier served as Penn State's president for 16 years until he was fired last November.

The charges against all three are based, in part, on evidence uncovered in an investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh, NBC News reported. Evidence detailed in Freeh's report, released in July, included emails in which the former officials appeared to agree not to report to child welfare authorities a 2001 allegation by former graduate assistant Mike McQueary that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in a Penn State shower room.

The Freeh Report was very critical of Spanier, Curley, Schultz and legendary head coach Joe Paterno, saying they chose to protect the school's image rather than deal head-on with the Sandusky sex scandal.

Spanier disputed those findings: "The report is full of factual errors and jumps to conclusions that are untrue and unwarranted," he said in July. In a statement released on Spanier's behalf Thursday, Spanier blames Gov. Tom Corbett for covering up the Sandusky allegations then using Attorney General Kelly to "do his bidding."

Spanier, Curley and Schultz have always denied any wrongdoing. Spanier has said he was only told that Sandusky was "horsing around" with the young boy in the locker room.

In July, Spanier wrote a letter to the board of trustees saying he would not have turned a "blind eye" to reports that Sanduky was abusing children because he too was a victim of abuse -- he said that as a child he endured repeated beatings by his father.

“It is unfathomable and illogical to think that a respected family sociologist and family therapist, someone who personally experienced massive and persistent abuse as a child, someone who devoted a significant portion of his career to the welfare of children and youth ... would have knowingly turned a blind eye to any report of child abuse or predatory sexual acts directed at children,” Spanier said in the letter.

Jerry Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sex abuse, for assaulting 10 boys over a 15-year period of time. Some of the abuse occurred on school property. For years Sandusky was the defensive coordinator for Penn State's football team. His office was just a few feet away from Paterno's. The sex scandal was the undoing of Paterno, who was fired and then died a few months later of cancer. Curly and Schultz are facing trial early next year.

Sandusky was sentenced in September to at least 30 years in prison and no more than 60. That is expected to be a life sentence for the 69-year-old. He was moved to his permanent prison cell this week.

Spanier's entire statement released by his legal team after he was charged in this case: