On Monday, a business associate named Giancarlo Granda alleged in an interview with Reuters that for years he had regular sexual liaisons with Mr. Falwell’s wife, Becki, as Mr. Falwell looked on. He said he met the couple in 2012 while a young pool attendant at a luxury hotel in Miami.
In a statement released Sunday evening that appeared to anticipate the revelations, Mr. Falwell conceded that his wife had engaged in an “inappropriate personal relationship” with Mr. Granda, but said that he “was not involved.” He added that Mr. Granda tried to extort the couple to keep the affair a secret, an ordeal so upsetting that it had caused him to seek mental health treatment.
Mr. Falwell and Ms. Falwell did not respond to requests for comment.
The association with Mr. Granda first received attention in 2019 after reports emerged that years earlier, Mr. Falwell had asked Michael Cohen, a fixer for President Trump, for help suppressing photographs that would have embarrassed the family. Mr. Falwell announced his endorsement of Mr. Trump soon afterward, surprising advisers to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who had been expecting Mr. Falwell to support his campaign.
The end of Mr. Falwell’s tenure would mark the fall of a pugnacious leader who took over leadership of Liberty, one of the largest Christian colleges in the nation, one day after his father’s death in 2007.
Liberty has had a Falwell at its helm since Mr. Falwell’s father, a pastor with a taste for conservative politics, founded the school as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971. Jerry Falwell Sr. aimed to turn the college into a national institution and football powerhouse, with the slogan “Champions for Christ.”
The younger Mr. Falwell appeared to fulfill his mission. The school now plays in the top division of college football, winning its first bowl game last year. Liberty reports an enrollment of more than 120,000 students, including 15,000 who attend classes on its expanding campus in Lynchburg, Va.
Mr. Falwell’s own national profile has risen dramatically since he endorsed Mr. Trump’s presidential bid in early 2016, before the Iowa caucus and significantly before most conservative evangelicals had warmed to him. He became one of the president’s most vocal evangelical supporters, speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention and becoming a regular presence on Fox News.
NovaStubble on August 24th, 2020 at 22:09 UTC »
From Rolling Stone
So what’s this about a “pool boy”? In 2012, Falwell and his wife Becki visited the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. While there, they befriended a 21-year-old pool attendant named Giancarlo Granda. Granda soon began traveling with the Falwells, both to their home of Virginia to hike and water ski, according to the Times, and to the Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys, according to the Herald. The latter paper published photos of the trip to the Keys, with Granda smiling next to Falwell, the two looking like father and son. Just months after the friendship commenced, the Falwells offered to help Granda, who had practically no business experience, set up a venture in Miami. After consulting with his friend Jesus Fernandez Jr. and Fernandez’s father, they agreed to open a hostel. Falwell ponied up $1.8 million.
from Politico
The Falwell-owned hostel encourages behavior that would get Liberty students expelled—the drinking, the smoking, the advertising for strip clubs, the free shuttles to local bars, the possibility of co-ed sleeping arrangements, and so on. And they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to buy anything from the adjoining liquor store on Falwell’s property—an amenity the hostel touts in the self-description it provides to travel sites like TripAdvisor: “There is a liquor store connected to the hostel with almost anything you need for partying!”
For most people, this probably seems like no big deal. But there’s a more substantive concern here than simple hypocrisy: For two years, the Falwell-controlled LLC that owned the hostel (as well as the land containing the liquor store and neighboring Italian restaurant) was based on property in Virginia owned by Liberty University.
mdonaberger on August 24th, 2020 at 21:40 UTC »
I heard that Falwell will resign, but will remain on staff to watch his replacement do his job from a chair in the corner.
wait_________what on August 24th, 2020 at 21:28 UTC »
In unrelated news, Liberty University is ending their Aquatic Maintenance major