Liberty, Falwell Jr. reach global settlement

Liberty University and Jerry Falwell Jr. have reached a global resolution agreement that settles all three lawsuits between the Lynchburg private Christian university and Falwell, Liberty’s former president and chancellor who was forced to resign in 2020 in disgrace.

In a joint statement released Friday afternoon, Liberty and Falwell said that Liberty’s board of trustees agreed to pay Falwell “authorized retirement and severance under the various disputed agreements and in keeping with the law,” although it did not disclose an amount.

Falwell, in a federal lawsuit filed in March 2023, sued the university and the board’s executive committee for $8.58 million in retirement payments. He filed a second federal lawsuit in July 2023 demanding $5 million for what Falwell said was the university’s misuse of the image of his father, Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., who founded Liberty in 1971. The settlement announced Friday also sets “the conditions under which the university will make use of Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr.’s name, image and likeness,” according to the joint statement.

Liberty, in Lynchburg Circuit Court, sued Falwell for $10 million in April 2021, claiming he had breached his contract and fiduciary duty, stemming from 2019 contract negotiations that yielded Falwell a salary increase and larger severance package. Liberty’s complaint claimed that Falwell did not disclose to the university’s board during those negotiations that a young Miami man was threatening to make public his yearslong sexual affair with Becki Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr.’s wife.

Although Giancarlo Granda, the man the Falwells met at a Miami hotel in 2012 when Granda was 20, has denied trying to extort or blackmail the couple, his version of events — backed up by text messages and photos — came out in August 2020 in a Reuters interview, after which Falwell resigned. Granda claimed in the interview that Falwell knew about Granda’s affair with Becki Falwell from the start and watched the two have sex.

While Falwell has vehemently denied watching his wife and Granda, he has acknowledged his wife’s affair put the couple at risk of exposure, and he admitted trying to appease Granda with trips to New York and Virginia. Falwell also was involved in an investment in a Miami hostel that Granda managed, although Trey Falwell, Jerry and Becki’s son, was listed as the investor.

Liberty’s complaint included a photo of Granda meeting Donald Trump during the future president’s 2012 visit to Liberty University, as well as photos of Granda with the Falwells on a tour of the U.S. Capitol, in the Florida Keys and at their farm in Virginia. These, the lawsuit claimed, “were among the acts of appeasement that the Falwells used over the years to maintain Granda’s cooperative silence.”

Falwell, Liberty’s lawsuit claimed, “began to fashion a well-resourced exit strategy” in the 2019 contract negotiations, as his relationship with Granda began to deteriorate. For his part, Falwell said that the university’s board “made yet another attempt to defame me and discredit my record.”

At the time of his resignation, Falwell had served 13 years as Liberty’s president and chancellor, having become the school’s head after his father died in 2007; the younger Falwell had received praise for saving the school years earlier by bringing it out of debt. By the time he resigned, Liberty had one of the nation’s largest online college enrollments and a multibillion-dollar endowment. The school also was central to national Republican politicians seeking Christian evangelists’ endorsements, and Falwell made headlines when he endorsed Trump for president in 2016, a surprise given the candidate’s multiple divorces and other scandals.

Liberty’s lawsuit against Falwell claimed that the “Falwells knew they shared a unity of interests with Granda. They had an important goal in common: silence about the Falwells’ salacious acts. The Falwell[s] needed silence from Granda in order to safeguard their personal reputation, Jerry Jr.’s professional standing, and his employment with America’s leading evangelical university.”

Falwell, meanwhile, alleged that the university and various board members — including Jerry Prevo, who chaired the Liberty board and stepped in as interim president and chancellor following Falwell’s resignation — had defamed him in public statements. He also claimed in a filing in a federal lawsuit that his brother, Liberty Chancellor Jonathan Falwell, had gone back on recusing himself from the second federal lawsuit, in which Jerry Falwell Jr. claimed that the university was improperly using the likeness, signature and name of their late father.

The global settlement, though, appears to bring the years of accusations and ugliness to a close, according to the two parties’ statement Friday:

“Both the university’s Board of Trustees and Jerry Falwell Jr. sincerely regret the lengthy and painful litigation process, and each take responsibility for their part in the disputes. Falwell acknowledges and apologizes for the errors in judgement and mistakes made during his time of leadership. The Board of Trustees acknowledge and apologize for the errors and mistakes made on their part as well. The trustees and Falwell are committed to move forward in a spirit of forgiveness and with the hope of reconciliation in a Christ-honoring manner.”

In an email to the university community Friday, Liberty President Dondi E. Costin wrote that “about three years ago a prohibition was put in place that prevented employees from communicating with our former president and his wife about Liberty business or operations. That restriction is now lifted for employees of Liberty University and its affiliates. You are free to communicate with Jerry and Becki, including about Liberty University, just as you would with other alumni and members of the public.”

The couple are also “now free to be on Liberty property, attend our events and join us in the stands as they support their alma mater,” Costin wrote. “The time has come for our former president and his wife to be welcomed back to our campus.”

Costin added that the principals have “taken responsibility for their respective parts in the disputes and have apologized to each other.”

Both the joint statement and Costin’s letter say that the parties will not comment further on the matter.