Jerry Falwell Jr, the former president of Liberty University who left the school last year amid scandal, appeared at a student gathering last weekend and invited several of them to attend ‘the real Liberty graduation’ at his farm next month.
Falwell resigned as president and chancellor of the evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, last year after it was learned that his wife was having an affair with a pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, who was trying to extort the couple.
Despite the acrimony surrounding his departure, Falwell doesn’t appear ready to let go.
A video circulating on Twitter and a longer clip obtained by Religion News Service shows Falwell speaking to a gathering of Liberty University students at a comedy show last weekend.
Jerry Falwell Jr, the former president of Liberty University who left the school last year amid scandal, appeared at a student gathering last weekend and invited several of them to attend ‘the real Liberty graduation’ at his farm next month
‘We’re going to have the real Liberty graduation,’ Falwell is heard saying. In another clip from the same event, Falwell tells the students: ‘If you’re not a senior but you’re dating one, you can come, too.’
Falwell resigned as president and chancellor of the evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, last year after it was learned that his wife, Becki (seen left with her husband), was having an affair with a pool boy, Giancarlo Granda (right), who was trying to extort the couple
DailyMail.com has reached out to Liberty University seeking comment.
The former president can be seen standing on an outdoor stage which was decorated with handmade signs.
Falwell is seen holding a microphone in front of the students and urging them to come to an event at ‘our farm’ on May 8.
‘We’re going to have the real Liberty graduation,’ Falwell is heard saying.
In another clip from the same event, Falwell tells the students: ‘If you’re not a senior but you’re dating one, you can come, too.’
Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University last year after revelations that he drank alcohol. Falwell posted this photo to his Instagram page in August last year – before quickly deleting it – with his pants unbuttoned and his arm around a woman. His caption read: ‘More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.’
Students at Liberty University in Virginia are not allowed to drink alcohol and are banned from engaging with media that contains lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity
Falwell tells the students in the video that he and his wife, Becki Falwell, were out to dinner when their daughter, a junior at Liberty, was at the comedy show.
He said he showed up to invite the students to his farm.
During his brief speech, the former university head said his daughter was ‘probably so pissed at me right now.’
He then encouraged the students to tell their peers about the invite ‘as fast as you can’ on social media.
‘We gotta move quickly,’ he said.
Falwell later told RNS that he was joking about the party being the ‘real graduation.’
He said that he is planning an event at his 500-acre farm in Bedford County, where his family has lived for 33 years.
Falwell said the event is ‘my way of saying thank you’ to students who have supported him throughout the last year.
‘I just want to thank the students because they’ve shown me so much love through all this ordeal,’ he told RNS.
‘Everywhere I go, they’re so forgiving. They’re so loving. And I want to reciprocate by having them out to my farm.’
Falwell said the party is scheduled for May 8 and will be held if his health permits. He said he has been treated recently for blood clots, a condition that also affected his mother.
When Falwell was asked if it was appropriate for the former president of the university to host students at such an event, he said: ‘I live right here, and I’ve got a big farm, and I got a bunch of students that I love and that love me, and I’m going to do it.’
Falwell added: ‘I don’t care whether anybody likes it or not.’
Save71, a group of Liberty alumni, doesn’t like it. The group said the party was not appropriate in light of ‘allegations of sexually predatory behavior by the Falwells.’
Falwell later told RNS that he was joking about the party being the ‘real graduation.’ He said that he is planning an event at his 500-acre farm (above) in Bedford County, where his family has lived for 33 years. Falwell said the event is ‘my way of saying thank you’ to students who have supported him throughout the last year
The group called on the university to ‘protect students.’
Last year, a former Liberty University student who played in a band with Becki Falwell’s son came forward with claims she performed oral sex on him and pursued him on Facebook for months when he was 22, Politico reported.
In the sexual encounter, the former student said he had finished band practice with the Falwell’s eldest son Trey and was at the Falwell home in Cifax, Virginia when Becki allegedly jumped into bed with him and began to perform oral sex on him.
He claimed her husband was away at the time.
He said that he gave in to her advances but rejected her later ones when she pursued him with gifts and chit chat on Facebook messages.
‘She was the aggressor,’ he said of the relationship.
The former student said on some occasions he’d stay up drinking whiskey and playing music with Trey and would crash in the guest bedroom of the Falwell’s home next to Trey’s bedroom.
He said on one occasion in either August or September 2008, he stayed over and heard giggling next to him and found Becki in the room, but got her to leave.
A few nights later he stayed the night again at the Falwells’ home and Becki came into the guest bedroom where she climbed into his bed and took down his pants.
‘I was like, “Uh, what are you doing?”‘ he said. The man claims she proceeded to give him oral sex.
Afterwards, the student said he feared word would get out and he would tarnish the legacy of Jerry Falwell Sr, a respected evangelical pastor who died the year prior.
A fellow bandmate, who was unnamed in the report, said the former student told him about the encounter with Becki a month later.
That bandmate said Becki would flirt and make innuendos with the former student during band practices while her son was present.
The former student provided screenshots of messages Becki sent him that suggest a flirtatious relationship.
Last year, a former Liberty University student who played in a band with Becki Falwell’s son came forward with claims she performed oral sex on him and pursued him on Facebook for months when he was 22, Politico reported
In one message she said: ‘[Redacted] said that she wants you to cut bangs when you get your hair cut. I think that you are beautiful just like you are. You don’t want to cover up those killer eyes of yours and you know the bandana drives me wild… oh well, do whatever YOU want to do. Now you have my two cents.’
According to Politico after months of chasing the former student she wrote to him: ‘Maybe time will heal whatever wounds that I have caused and your Christian heart will allow you to forgive me.’
He claimed she also tried to contact him on social media using fake accounts where she posed as a blonde North Carolina woman in her early 20s.
‘She was saying stuff a 20 and 21-year-old wouldn’t say. [It was] like real Southern charm. Stuff that older people say. And I said [to myself], “Hold up, not only is this an old person, it’s Becki,”‘ he said.
‘So I said, “I think I have a feeling who this is. Why are you doing this right now on this account?”‘ the former student recalled. ‘I think she was embarrassed, because I kinda remember her being defensive about it.’
He said she would offer him gifts including CD’s and tickets to see Kings of Leon.
The former student, who is now 34, says he hasn’t heard from Becki Falwell in more than eight years until last August when the pool boy scandal with Giancarlo Granda broke out.
He said she texted him to say hello and share her agony on the scandal.
The former student who says Becki Falwell pursued him was in a band with the Falwell’s eldest son Trey Falwell (above)
She texted him: ‘This is a nightmare. It just keeps getting worse.’
The former student said that the incident with Becki made him spiral into a long battle with his faith and mental health. He didn’t tell his family about the incident and only confided in a few close friends.
‘I don’t want to be a homewrecker. That took a toll on the soul,’ the former student said.
‘It made [him] feel bad. It was a depressing thing; he struggled with depression [afterwards],’ a former bandmate said.
Becki and Jerry Falwell Jr have dismissed the former student’s claims as ‘false and fantastic claims’.
‘It is unfortunate that the coverage of our departure has turned into a frenzy of false and fantastic claims about us. These false and mean spirited lies have hurt us and our family greatly and we will respond fully with the truth at an appropriate time,’ they said in a statement to the outlet.
Liberty University said no students registered sexual misconduct claims with the university against Becki.
‘This is a fresh allegation, as far as we can tell,’ Scott Lamb, the vice president of the nation’s largest evangelical university in Lynchburg, Virginia said.
The allegations against Becki came just days after it was learned that Giancarlo Granda, a one-time Miami pool boy-turned-business partner of the Falwell family, said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife.
Jerry Falwell Jr was an early supporter of Donald Trump, and spent millions on causes to support the former President
It was also claimed that Jerry participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur.
Although the Falwells acknowledged that Granda and Becki Falwell had an affair, Jerry Falwell denied any participation.
The couple alleged that Granda sought to extort them by threatening to reveal the relationship.
Earlier this month, Liberty filed a lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from Jerry Falwell Jr.
The complaint, which was filed in Lynchburg Circuit Court, alleges Falwell crafted a ‘well-resourced exit strategy’ from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information from the evangelical school about a personal scandal that would explode into public view the following year.
‘Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection,’ the lawsuit says.
It also alleges that Falwell failed to disclose and address ‘the issue of his personal impairment by alcohol’ and has refused to fully return confidential information and other personal property belonging to Liberty.
In a statement, Falwell said the lawsuit was full of ‘lies and half truths’ and called it an attempt to defame him and discredit his record.
‘I assure you that I will defend myself against it with conviction,’ he said.
