Liberty University to pay Jerry Falwell Jr. after the sex scandal

Liberty University has agreed to pay its former President Jerry Falwell Jr. as part of a settlement after his resignation for sex scandals, which shook the famous conservative university, around 15 million US dollars.

Falwell took over the president after the death of his father Jerry Falwell Sr. from 2007, a massively influential figure in the modern right Christian movement of America, which founded the university in 1971.

Falwell Jr. resigned in 2020, and an agreement was announced in 2024, but the conditions were not announced.

Tax documents recently submitted that the University of Falwell pays more than 15 million US dollars in order to “pay certain claims and to close certain transactions”. USA TODAY First, the disclosures reported.

Falwell also agreed to pay the University of 440,000 US dollars for setting up “controversial expenses” with the university. The submissions did not contain any details of the payments.

According to tax registrations, Falwell will receive around 5.5 million US dollars for setting up the complaints together with 9.7 million US dollars as part of his pension package.

The independent requested a comment from Liberty.

Falwell told USA TODAY that he was “very satisfied with the result of the comparison negotiations and the final settlement”.

In its explanation of 2024, the university announced that it had achieved a “global resolution contract” with its board of trustees, in which they “settled all outstanding disputes for both legal and personal matters when setting Falwell.

“This agreement is based on a firm obligation to protect and preserve the original mission of Liberty, Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge and skills that are essential for the world,” the explanation said.

Falwell took over the university in 2007 after the death of his father, Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., who founded the college. Thirteen years later, Falwell, who shook the Protestant Christian and Republican institutions with his fear of Donald Trump's candidate in 2016, was set for an indefinite period in August 2020 after he was released and then deleted, a provocative Instagram photo on which he wraps his arm around a woman, while she is uncomfortable with her pants.

The university announced its resignation a few weeks later after the allegations that Falwell and his wife hired a sexual relationship with another man for years.

In a lengthy explanation at this time, Falwell claimed that the man tried to blackmail the family and accused him of apparently revealing the relationship “to deliberately embarrassed my wife, family and Liberty University, unless we have agreed to pay him essential money”.

“Over the past few months, the behavior of this person has reached a level that we have decided that the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public,” he said at the time.

Giancarlo Granda, who shared his relationship with the couple of messages with Reuters as part of the investigation of the outlet, denied the allegations against him.

Granda said he was in early 20 when he scored Falwell and his wife Becki for the first time when he worked as a pool companion in a hotel in Florida. According to reports, he started a sexual relationship with Becki Falwell in 2012, which, according to Reuters, was seen until 2018.

The Falwells had now financed a hostel in Miami Beach in which Granda also invested, according to Reuters. In 2015, the Falwells filed a lawsuit for their ownership that was rejected and they were repeated in 2017.

Reuters and The New York Times In 2019, Falwell also reported that Falwell Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen applied for the President's payments on behalf of the President for the silence of women who were allegedly offered with the President for the payment of the silence with the President to get rid of photos that were supposed to be alleged that they were supposed to be “kept between husband and woman”.

After leaving the university, Liberty initiated an examination of his alleged behavior and a wave of legal disputes followed. Falwell sued for defamation, but the complaint was dropped. Liberty sued Falwell in 2021 for breach of contract, and in 2023 Falwell filed a lawsuit about his pension package and another against the use of his father's image.

These claims were fallen until July 2024 when the university announced that an agreement was reached.

The settlement “is based on a mutual understanding of the amount that Liberty University will pay its former president in retirement and severance pay as part of the various controversial agreements” as well as “the conditions under which the University of Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr., Name, Image and similarity”, said Liberty at the time.

Falwell, University and her board of directors “sincerely the lengthy and painful legal dispute process and all take responsibility for their part of the disputes,” said the explanation.

“Falwell recognizes and apologizes for the mistakes in the judgment and the mistakes made during his management time” recognize and apologize for the mistakes and errors that were also made for their part. The trustees and Falwell are obliged to move in the spirit of forgiveness and hope of reconciliation on Christ, as he honors. “

The university and its board did not promise any further explanations for comparison.

In the same year, President Joe Biden's government applied for $ 16 million from the university, after the students were afraid of reporting sexual abuse, including a fine of $ 14 million and a pledge of $ 2 million from the university “for security improvements on campus and compliance improvements”.