Unable to run Gradle: org.fusesource.jansi.internal.Kernel32.init()V

I am having difficulty running Gradle 4.3.1 on a “new” windows 7 corporate computer. It produces the following output:

C:\>gradle -v --stacktrace

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
org.fusesource.jansi.internal.Kernel32.init()V

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug
option to get more log output.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

I have JDK version 1.8 installed, and %JAVA_HOME% is set. I know that I am operating under some corporate restrictions. I opened the permissions for my gradle directory (c:\gradle) as well as my .gradle directory and even the temp directory. I can’t seem to get past this error even if I run a cmd.exe window as administrator. Any suggestions?

same error with Gradle-7.1
Does anyone know where the Kernel32 jar is located?