Saturday, August 8, 2020

Jerry Falwell Jr August 2020

 

Fifth batch - circa Labor Day 2020 and a week prior

Former pool boy for the Falwells says they’re ‘relentlessly harassing’ him in wake of sex scandal


EXCLUSIVE: Giancarlo Granda claims Falwell Jr. has been 'relentlessly harassing' him since sex scandal broke
Falwell Jr. walked away from Liberty University with an estimated $10.5 million payout
https://www.foxnews.com/us/giancarlo-granda-claims-falwell-jr-as-been-relentlessly-harassing-him-since-sex-scandal-broke
"I was afraid for a long time and was constantly reminded by the Falwells of how they would come after me if I spoke the truth, which is why it took so long to speak up," Giancarlo Granda told Fox News in an exclusive interview.
Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki met and befriended Granda when he was a 20-year-old college student working as a pool attendant at the 5-star Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. What allegedly followed was seen as lurid by some, but jaw-dropping hypocrisy for the first family of evangelical education.
"Becki [Falwell] approached me and invited me back to their hotel room to have sex while Jerry watched," Granda said. "After that night, Becki actively pursued me."
Since the scandal broke last month, Granda claims the Falwells "have been relentlessly harassing me and people close to me," and said Falwell will do whatever it takes to make sure he doesn't spill any more secrets. While the alleged threats and intimidation tactics might have worked in the past, Granda said he's had enough and wants to come clean.
He has shared text messages, emails and photos with Fox News that appear to back up his allegations and, at the very least, show the Falwells breaking Liberty's code of conduct on multiple occasions.
"Their lavish lifestyle consisted of heavy drinking and going to nightclubs, which is strictly prohibited by the honor code that they expect everyone else to follow," Granda said, adding that Falwell didn't believe Liberty's rules applied to him and would often use his influence to have stories killed and rumors squashed.
In 2019, Politico published a piece that called out Falwell for a trip to Miami's WALL nightclub. Falwell vehemently denied visiting the Miami Beach dance club on July 19, 2014, and claimed any images with him in it were "Photoshopped."
A day later, Seth Browarnik, the owner of World Red Eye, a Miami-based photography company that documents the city's nightlife, searched his archives and found multiple unpublished pictures from the evening where several members of the Falwell family are seen in the club, including Falwell, Becki, sons Trey and Wesley, and Trey's wife, Sarah. In one of the images, Falwell is in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by people. In two others, the Falwells can be seen holding alcohol -- a simple act that could get a Liberty University student expelled. Co-ed dancing is also frowned upon at the school.
Falwell's indiscretions weren't limited to Miami. His coarse language on social media mirrored the popular culture but shocked those back at the school his father had established in 1971 -- eight years before he began the influential Moral Majority.
Eyebrows rose and tongues clucked at Liberty when Falwell told another Christian leader on Twitter to "grow a pair"  -- a suggestion he also made to "spineless Repubs" on April 18, 2019.
Falwell allegedly showed up on campus multiple times reeking of alcohol. At a Liberty football game, he accidentally sent a steamy picture of his wife to a number of school administrators, as well as to his own son. Then there was the picture he posted on Instagram of himself and a young woman on a yacht with their zippers down, which got him suspended. That scandal was followed by the bombshell report on Granda.

"Everyone at Liberty University treated the Falwells like a royal family," he said. "Faculty, the Board, legal team and friends within the trusted 'inner circle' all looked the other way out of fear."

Granda said he's been on vacation with the Falwells in the past, flown on Liberty's private jet and has pictures with the family at football and hockey games, touring the campus with guest speakers and at convocation.

"They treated me like a part of the family," he said, acknowledging the peculiar dynamics of their bond.
Two days before Granda's account of the relationship with the Falwells was made public, Falwell told a Washington newspaper that it was Granda who was trying to blackmail the couple, that his relationship with Becki had become obsessive, and that the situation had turned into a "fatal attraction." Falwell claimed Granda had threatened to expose the affair and that the threat triggered an emotional roller coaster for his family.
Granda wasn't surprised that Falwell tried to pin the affair on his wife's promiscuity.
"Jerry and Becki's version is false," Granda said. "[Jerry] was aware of our relationship from day one. Jerry is incapable of accepting responsibility for his actions. Therefore, I was not shocked by his attempt to shift the blame to someone else."

Multiple calls to the Falwell family for comment were not returned.

Coming up on Thursday, Sept. 9: Fox News Digital investigates where the lines between personal profit and official school business may have blurred at Liberty University.
In the beginning there was Adam Eve and pool boy Steve

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Fourth batch


After Jerry Falwell Jr.'s departure, Liberty University faces questions about faith, power, accountability
August 29, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/29/liberty-evangelicals-after-falwell-questions-accountability-christianity/
Falwell has been “an inspiration,” said Jerry Prevo, a powerful, fundamentalist pastor from Alaska serving as acting president. He told students that Liberty’s leaders are committed to the spiritual mission of the university. He also said Falwell had been the “builder of this great campus, which all of us can be proud of.”
Then Jonathan Falwell, pastor of the Liberty-affiliated Thomas Road Baptist Church, spoke. He did not mention his brother by name. But he told his audience, in Lynchburg, Va., and around the globe: “So many times we see Christians that are more focused on building their own brand than they are about building the kingdom of God.”
Convocation was held less often. And the substance changed: Speakers increasingly included business leaders, sports figures or politicians, as well as religious figures. Some of the strict rules of conduct were relaxed, especially for online students. Most visibly, the school’s president was not a pastor. Especially in recent years, he made headlines with business disputes and allegations of inappropriate behavior.
For years, they (Save71) wrote in a statement, Liberty’s board allowed Falwell to harm Liberty’s reputation, permitting him and his family to run the school like a personal business and sitting by “while Falwell’s words and deeds disgraced the name of the Lord again and again.”
https://save71.org/

The board of trustees should examine its own failures, said Warren Smith, president of MinistryWatch, a ministry watchdog group, and a Liberty parent. “They have not performed their fiduciary duties.”

Falwell Inc.: Inside a Religious, Political, Educational, and Business Empire Hardcover – July 22, 2008
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312376294

Investigative reporter Dirk Smillie reveals the financial rapids Reverend Falwell and son Jerry Jr. hit when business failures piled up $100 million in debt and nearly sank his school and ministry. Smillie uncovers the extraordinary impact Falwell, in saving his spiritual enterprises, has had on Lynchburg, Virginia, and how savvy real estate investments and relentless fund-raising saved the empire. Falwell Inc. details the spreading influence his legacy continues to exert on our country.


From a review -

Oh, mainstream media didn't tell you, Falwell got millions from the Rev. Sun Moon. Moonies. One of Falwell's top aides was the #2 man in the Moonies worldwide. Incredible story. The paragon of Christianity being financed by Rev. Moon.

The real reason he hated the Clintons, sponsored the video that accused them of murder, being the anti-Christ, etc? Hillary's law firm foreclosed on some of the Rev's debt, this time the Rev had put up his own office as collateral. Hillary's law firm threw him out of it. "He carted his belongings himself to a new isolated site ...." Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, but not in Jerry's Bible.

A man who was a bigoted bully. The book details how it took him ages to finally come to grips, at least in public, with the fact that African American activists weren't Communists. After vilifying them was no longer acceptable, he turned to the only thing left that was acceptable to demonize ... gays. It really brought the money in, read his direct mail pieces about how homosexuals can't reproduce, they can only recruit, they're after your children, send me money to stop it, etc. As if he could. He hurt people. He hurt the young, uncertain about their sexuality. Some of whom killed themselves. It must have been wonderful, to be absolutely so certain about things.

Missing from the book, anything about salvation, Jesus, Christianity. There's a reason for that, it wasn't important.

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Third batch of entries, after resignation, beginning Wednesday August 26

Predator’ Jerry Falwell Jr. sent lewd photo of Liberty student, pool boy claims
The former pool boy who claims to have had an affair with Jerry Falwell Jr.’s wife while the evangelical leader watched accused him of being a “predator” who once sent him a photo of a Liberty University student exposing herself at his family’s farm.
“The reality is Jerry Falwell is a predator. I know this because he sent me an image of a female Liberty University student exposing herself at their farm,” Granda said in the statement released on Twitter.
Falwell told the newspaper that the photo was captured when he and his wife were out of town and his daughters-in-law and a friend were using their guest house to cook. One of the women was video recording, and as a joke, the friend lifted up her skirt and exposed her underwear, he said.
“She had on, I don’t know how to say this, granny panties,” he told the Washington Post.

Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s life of luxury before shocking pool boy sex scandal
Jerry Falwell Jr. led a life of luxury filled with jaunts to Miami on a private jet, trips to the Bahamas, and a $1 million salary — while running Liberty University like a “dictatorship” — before he resigned over his sordid sexcapade scandal.
Falwell, 58, portrayed himself as the consummate family man on Instagram, posting photos of his daughter’s picture-perfect engagement and riding horses on his sprawling farm in Cifax, Virginia.
Other snaps show the influential evangelical leader snorkeling in the Bahamas, dining with friends during a trip to Greece made possible by “good friends from the Middle East” and dressed up at the White House Christmas party.
“It’s a dictatorship,” one high-level employee told Politico last year. “Nobody craps at the university without Jerry’s approval.”
He told the paper Monday night, “I didn’t break any rules — I get my compensation.”


Becki Falwell breaks her silence to deny pool boy's claims that her husband Jerry watched them having sex and says she wishes people were 'more forgiving'
Becky Falwell claimed on Tuesday her evangelist husband did not watch her having sex with pool boy Giancarlo Granda, as Granda claimed
Granda told Politico Jerry watched in a pair of Speedos while he had sex with Becki, 53, in 2012
He said Jerry liked to watch in person but also 'remotely through video cameras' over the next six years
They met in 2012 at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami where Granda was working as a pool boy
He says Becki approached him while he was talking to girls 'his own age' - he was 20 and Becki was 44
She told him he needed to be with a woman who was more experienced, he claims, and took him to her room
According to Granda, she said: 'Just one thing, my husband likes to watch' and Jerry appeared in Speedos
Falwell Jr. has now officially resigned as the head of Liberty University
He said on Sunday that he did not know about the affair at first and that it devastated him when he found out
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8663819/Becki-Falwell-breaks-silence-deny-pool-boys-claims.html
Jerry called Granda's claims '90 percent false' and said he stepped down from Liberty not because of him but because he was 'starting to get bored'. 
'I’ve accomplished all I can accomplish and I want to move on. I was starting to get bored.' 
Earlier in the day, he quoted Martin Luther King Jr, telling a local reporter in Lynchburg, Virginia: 'It’s a relief.  The quote that keeps going through my mind this morning is Martin Luther Ling Jr: "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last."' 


Second batch of entries, as the pool boy article comes out, Falwell resigns, un-resigns, then resigns again. 



Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Leadership at Liberty Appears Near End
One of President Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters, Mr. Falwell denied reports he had resigned from the university.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/us/jerry-falwell-resigns-liberty.html

This Tuesday morning report tells us the timeline so far and into Tuesday

Reports: After back and forth, Falwell has resigned from Liberty

BREAKING: University says board will meet Tuesday to discuss situation

Morning of August 25

https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/report-after-back-and-forth-falwell-has-resigned-from-liberty/

https://www.liberty.edu/news/2020/08/24/jerry-falwell-jr-agrees-to-resign-as-liberty-universitys-president-then-reverses-course/


UPDATED: After saying resignation reports were ‘false,’ Falwell reportedly resigns
Said he did not plan to resign from Liberty University, despite controversy
August 24
https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/falwell-resignation-reports-are-completely-false/

Jerry Falwell Jr. tells paper he is resigning from Liberty University
The school placed Falwell on an indefinite leave of absence on Aug. 7.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jerry-falwell-jr-resigns-president-liberty-university-reports-say-n1237886

Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns from Liberty University. Again.
August 24
https://religionnews.com/2020/08/24/jerry-falwell-resigns-liberty-university-alleged-affair-trump-pool-attendant/

Jerry Falwell Jr. officially resigns from Liberty University
The embattled religious leader says he informed the school Monday night.
August 24, 11:56 pm
https://abcnews.go.com/US/jerry-falwell-jr-officially-resigns-liberty-university/story?id=72587982 

 


=======================

Notes on the reports of the yacht pic, yacht video, and forced leave of absence from his roles at Liberty U.

 

https://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&mid=380385 Important Announcement Regarding LU Leadership
August 7, 2020
Lynchburg, VA — The Executive Committee of Liberty University’s Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately.

http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=380001 LU President Jerry Falwell apologizes for unintentional pain caused by mask tweet
June 8, 2020
On Monday, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell deleted a post on his personal Twitter account and apologized for the pain he caused the African American community after posting an image of a mask he customized in protest of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s order for all Virginians to wear a mask while in public.

The Saga of Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Bizarre Relationship With a Miami Beach Pool Boy, Explained
The Liberty University president who shepherded much of Trump’s evangelical support is at the center of a controversy involving blackmail, a hostel, and Tom Arnold
June 20, 2019
Evangelical Christians love President Trump. They voted for him in 2016 by a staggering margin — 80% to 16% — and a Pew Research poll released in March found that 69% of white evangelicals approve of the job Trump is doing as president. The fact that Trump is a lewd, twice-divorced former casino magnate who has bragged about grabbing women by their genitals does not seem to bother the nation’s most devout Christians. Jerry Falwell Jr. is a big reason why.

The Evangelical, the 'pool boy', the Comedian, and Michael Cohen
That backstory, in true Trump-tabloid fashion, features the friendship between Mr. Falwell, his wife and a former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach; the family’s investment in a gay-friendly youth hostel; purported sexually revealing photographs involving the Falwells; and an attempted hush-money arrangement engineered by the president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen.
(“A lot of what we sent them is actually what got implemented,” 
he told The New York Times Magazine last year.)
Mr. Cohen even turned to a Falwell lieutenant — Liberty’s deputy chief information officer at the time, John Gauger — as he worked to build Mr. Trump’s political profile. Mr. Gauger also ran his own consulting firm, RedFinch Solutions.
Mr. Cohen hired RedFinch to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor — one in 2014 by CNBC, and another in early 2015 in the Drudge Report — Mr. Gauger told The Wall Street Journal in January.

The is a listing for the hostel at 810 Alton Road Apt 10 Miami Beach FL 33139 USA

Falwell Settles Court Case Over ‘Pool Boy’ Business Deal
The settlement concludes a case that drew national attention over its connections to Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer.


Jerry Falwell Jr. Taking Leave of Absence From Liberty University
Mr. Falwell, the college’s president and a supporter of President Trump, agreed to a request by the school’s board of trustees.
Mr. Falwell responded to criticism of the photo earlier this week in an interview with WLNI, a local Lynchburg radio station. “Yeah, it was weird. She’s pregnant. She couldn’t get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like … I had on a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in a long time and couldn’t get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. She’s my wife’s assistant, she’s a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. I’ve apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out.”
A now-deleted video of a party on the yacht, titled “Trailer Park Boys,” showed Falwell family members and friends in costumes in an apparent reference to the Canadian mockumentary series.
Calum Best, 22, who graduated from Liberty in May and who has spoken out against Mr. Falwell’s political activity, called the move “a victory.”
“It feels like they did it more because they were embarrassed, more than because it was the correct thing to do,” he said. But, he said, “it’s great that he is gone.”
“He is the one who holds up Liberty’s culture of focus on money, material well-being, political nationalism,” he said. “Without Falwell gone, we can’t really change any of that.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4f1q41LtUk Full Frontal Investigates: The Case of Jerry Falwell, Jr., the Pool Boy, Michael Cohen, & Tom Arnold  - August 14, 2019



Why did Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. post a picture of himself with his pants unbuckled, underwear showing, a glass of “wine” in his hand, and his arm around a woman’s waist?

https://thewayofimprovement.com/2020/08/03/why-did-liberty-university-president-jerry-falwell-jr-post-a-picture-of-himself-with-his-pants-unbuckled-underwear-showing-a-glass-of-wine-in-his-hand-and-his-arm-around-a-woman/


WLNI is a Lynchburg radio station.  Jr called in to respond to his insta post controversy and slurred his speech.  Seemed drunk or half drunk.  Partial apology.

https://wlni.com/news/jerry-falwell-jr-responds-to-viral-instagram-post


Kathleen Stone is the woman in the photo. She is married to Sam Stone.

https://www.instagram.com/kathleen_may_stone/?hl=en

lynchburg, va

liberty university graduate

wife to @sam_rock_stone ♡

http://vimeo.com/350227051

https://vimeo.com/350227051?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=28749

https://www.instagram.com/sam_rock_stone/?hl=en christ follower || liberty university graduate || louisville - lynchburg || married to @kathleen_may_stone ||

https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.raught


https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefreethinker/2020/08/falwell-jr-unzipped-evangelical-leader-says-it-was-just-in-good-fun/


https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/05/falwell-apologizes-unzipped-pants-photo-391976

The comment stream under this is worth a read.  Many errors, some truths, I participated. 


https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/08/jerry-falwell-jr-helping-another-young-athletic-man-loads-cash-reason/

Later that year, Falwell sent an email that has been uncovered by Reuters where he urged Liberty officials to cut a “sweet deal” for Crosswhite.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-falwell-trainer-exclusive/exclusive-falwell-steered-liberty-university-land-deal-benefiting-his-personal-trainer-idUSKCN1VH283

One difference: When Falwell helped Crosswhite, he used the assets of Liberty, the tax-exempt university he has led since 2008. Among the largest Christian universities in the world, Liberty depends on hundreds of millions of dollars its students receive in federally backed student loans and Pell grants.

In 2016, Falwell signed a real estate deal transferring the sports facility, complete with tennis courts and a fitness center owned by Liberty, to Crosswhite. Under the terms, Crosswhite wasn’t required to put any of his own money down toward the purchase price, a confidential sales contract obtained by Reuters shows.


kathleen stone and jerry falwell

Google search terms that work well


This one is by recent Liberty U grad Calum Best. It's on The Bulwark, a reliably conservative platform.

Jerry Falwell’s Zipper Has Been Down for Years

His bizarre Instagram picture is just the latest in a long line of bad decisions that have harmed Liberty University.

https://thebulwark.com/jerry-falwells-zipper-has-been-down-for-years/


This is a pretty good recital, but it's not complete. His tax evasions aren't mentioned. The blackface mask episode isn't mentioned.


This report says Jerry Jr would owe up to $9,000 in fines and 900 hours of service, and in addition face up to 40 counts of expulsion, if he did this as a student.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LibertyUniversity/comments/i38gqw/40_counts_of_possible_expulsion_as_well_as_9k_and/


Here's the video of the yacht party.

https://vimeo.com/444300274?ref=em-share


https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/08/falwell-jr-yacht-photo-departure-from-liberty-university.html



https://twitter.com/falkirk_center To renew & defend God-given freedoms in America & restore Judeo-Christian based principles in our national policies, institutions, & culture.





How Jerry Falwell Jr. Lost His Liberty Flock

The university’s leader has effectively become a spokesman for evangelicalism. Pastors and alumni worry about the consequences for their faith.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/jerry-fallwell-evangelicals-liberty/615112/

Alumni feel “they have to hide their association with Liberty,” Colby Garman, a pastor who graduated from Liberty and serves on the board of Virginia’s Southern Baptist Convention, told me by phone Friday night. “A lot of pastors feel that way, a little bit, when it comes to the leadership of the school.” (Falwell did not reply to my request for an interview.)


Falwell has long courted scandal, but was previously met with seemingly endless patience from his backers at Liberty. The school’s leadership stuck by Falwell as he became one of Trump’s earliest and most dedicated supporters, and when, following the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, he encouraged students to get concealed-carry permits so they could “end those Muslims before they walk in,” ostensibly referring to terrorists. School leadership supported him through allegations of internal bullying and corrupt self-dealing, and when Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he helped Falwell destroy racy “personal photographs.” Falwell didn’t even lose his job in May, when he tweeted a picture of a face mask depicting figures in KKK robes and blackface, an attempt to mock Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Enough of Falwell’s supporters saw that photo as a debatable political stunt that the controversy dissipated. But it was still a turning point—a moment when pastors, alumni, and board members began questioning whether Falwell should stay in his role.

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