Liberty University confirms Falwell resignation after sex scandal

Jerry Falwell Jr was pushed to resign as president of Liberty University after a former swimming pool attendant described his involvement in years of sexual encounters with the evangelical powerbroker’s wife.

Mr Falwell, whose controversial endorsement gave Donald Trump a key boost in his 2016 presidential campaign, was asked to quit after his one-time pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda, alleged a series of sexual relations with Becki Falwell in Mr Falwell’s presence.

The devoutly Christian university in Virginia said that Mr Falwell agreed to step down after Mr Granda’s assertions were published by Reuters, withheld his resignation letter after seeing media reports of it, then finally submitted it through his lawyer.

Liberty placed Mr Falwell on indefinite leave earlier in the month after he posted an Instagram photo of himself on a yacht holding a drink, with his arm around his wife’s assistant and their clothing partly undone.

A son of Liberty’s founder, Mr Falwell has through those and other personal behaviours become an acute embarrassment for the nation’s most politically active Christian university and its demands that students observe strict biblical notions of pious behaviour.

Mr Falwell’s father, Jerry Falwell, co-founded Liberty in 1971 as part of a religious-political empire that for decades encouraged conservative Christians to elect Republican politicians.

An attorney by training, Mr Falwell took control of Liberty after his father’s death in 2007, but defiantly insisted that he bore responsibility for the university’s financial health rather than its moral standards.

The extent of that posture grew clear in recent years through investigative reports by Liberty graduate Brandon Ambrosino, a lawsuit by business partners of Mr Granda, and sleuthing by television actor Tom Arnold.

Those efforts alleged some type of sexual secret involving Mr Granda, in his twenties, and the Falwells, in their fifties; an attempt by disgraced Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to help hide compromising photos; and connections between Mr Cohen and Mr Falwell’s surprising decision to throw the considerable weight of his late father’s political organisation behind Mr Trump.

Only a day before Mr Granda set out the details for Reuters, Mr Falwell provided a lengthy statement to a conservative newspaper accusing him of “predatory behaviour”, calling the affair with his wife “something in which I was not involved”, blaming it for his depression, and talking of biblical forgiveness.

The grind of revelations has fuelled uprisings among Liberty students and alumni who were long wary of the university’s high political profile, and regard Mr Falwell as far more interested in exploiting its business potential than nurturing its Christian identity.

Leading concerns included Mr Falwell’s push for online revenues that has added some 100,000 virtual students to Liberty's 15,000 on-campus population. Some in the Liberty community suggest Mr Falwell was emboldened by the success of his Trump endorsement to wade even deeper into his father’s realm of public political arguments.

“Because I’m a Christian,” said Dustin Wahl, a leader of an alumni group demanding Mr Falwell’s resignation, “I want Liberty to apologise and to depoliticise, and to move away from that past.”

One recent Liberty graduate, Calum Best, said that the university’s governing board refused for years to take seriously the allegations being made about Mr Falwell. Once he is gone, Mr Best said, they may simply replace him with a Falwell loyalist.

“Or,” he said, “they look at themselves and realise that the behaviour they are removing Falwell for is behaviour that they allowed and enabled for years.”

In a written statement, Liberty said its board of directors met to accept Mr Falwell’s resignation, effective immediately, and that the board scheduled a future meeting to begin a presidential search. 

The statement said Mr Falwell would receive his full severance compensation “without any adjustment”, credited him with bringing Liberty record enrolment and a transformed campus, and said “the university’s heartfelt prayers are with him and his family as he steps away from his life’s work”.

 Mr Best said he was disappointed the board “once again shirked its responsibility to condemn Falwell’s long history of failed leadership”, and said he hoped it would appoint “an independent committee of qualified people to select a new president for the university”.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com