Before Jerry Falwell Jr. became the first major evangelical leader to support Donald Trump, he tried to cut his financial ties with Giancarlo Granda, who was involved in a long-term sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki, in which Jerry Falwell sometimes participated by looking on, Granda told POLITICO.
The Liberty University president and his wife met Granda, then just 20 years old, in 2012 while the couple were staying at Miami Beach’s legendary Fontainebleau Hotel, where Granda was a pool attendant. A year after beginning what would become a seven-year affair, Granda said, the Falwells put up money for a Miami Beach youth hostel co-owned by Granda and the Falwells’ son Trey, according to Granda and incorporation documents.
Then, at the meeting at Loews Miami Beach Hotel in May 2015, Falwell surprised Granda by offering to buy him out. He also mentioned something else that caught Granda's attention: Donald Trump, he said, was planning to run for president, a somewhat surprising move that would place the New York developer among roughly a dozen people contending for the GOP nomination.
To Granda, the two events appeared to be connected: Jerry Falwell was trying to remove evidence of his family’s ties to Granda in anticipation of getting involved in politics, which could invite greater scrutiny of his activities.
Now, as Falwell fights to save his job, the meeting seems to mark a change in the evangelical leader’s life, the moment when he decided to step into the political arena as Trump’s leading backer in the religious right. The move dramatically raised Falwell’s profile, but also cast a harsh spotlight on his behavior.
“Jerry Falwell Jr. admired Trump’s strongman public persona,” Granda told POLITICO in one of a series of phone conversations and emailed exchanges. “Also, there was a noticeable personality change after Trump was elected. He was drunk on power and felt like he could get away with anything.”
Nonetheless, Falwell failed in his mission: erasing his ties to Granda. The young property manager — who would go on to earn a master’s degree in real estate from Georgetown University — agreed to a buyout, he said, but Falwell never paid. It was his determination to get the money, he said, that led him to continue to seek payment from the Falwells.
Jerry Falwell, who was placed on leave by the university after a controversy over his posting a picture of himself with his pants unzipped and an arm around his wife’s assistant, did not respond to requests for comment.
On Sunday night, he posted a statement acknowledging Becki’s affair with Granda but denying any personal involvement. He also said Granda had been attempting to extort money from him.
“During a vacation over eight years ago, Becki and I met an ambitious young man who was working at our hotel and was saving up his money to go to school,” Falwell wrote. “We encouraged him to pursue an education and a career and we were impressed by his initiative in suggesting a local real estate opportunity. My family members eventually made an investment in a local property, included him in the deal because he could play an active role in managing it, and became close with him and his family.
“Shortly thereafter, Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved — it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about. After I learned this, I lost 80 pounds and people who saw me regularly thought that I was physically unwell, when in reality I was just balancing how to be most supportive of Becki, who I love, while also reflecting and praying about whether there were ways I could have been more supportive of her and given her proper attention.”
“While we tried to distance ourselves from him over time, he unfortunately became increasingly angry and aggressive,” Jerry Falwell added. “Eventually, he began threatening to publicly reveal this secret relationship with Becki and to deliberately embarrass my wife, family, and Liberty University unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies.”
Granda disputes many aspects of Jerry Falwell’s statement. By his account, which was first reported in Reuters, the relationship began at their very first meeting, before the Falwells’ investment in the Miami Beach hostel. He also said that Jerry Falwell not only was aware of the relationship, but sometimes watched him and Becki have sex.
In addition, Granda told POLITICO, while he had sometimes grown angry at the Falwells, the only money he attempted to obtain from them was payment for his share of the hostel deal, which the evangelical leader had promised him.
“I was struggling with my mental health at the time and said some regrettable things, but I was hopeless and at times felt like the only way I could break away from their ‘hold,’ was by lashing out at them or ending my life,” Granda said in an email.
A month after Falwell offered to buy out Granda’s share of the hostel, Trump launched his bid for office. Falwell — to the surprise of many evangelicals — started talking Trump up on the campaign trail. Falwell became the first major evangelical leader to endorse Trump, providing a crucial bridge to a constituency that was deeply skeptical of him. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who emerged as Trump’s main rival for the nomination, had counted on the overwhelming backing of evangelical Christians as his base of support.
The meeting at Loews — disclosed here for the first time — wasn’t the first time that Trump loomed large over Granda and his relationship with the Falwells. In 2014, when Granda and the Falwells were named defendants in a lawsuit relating to the Miami Beach hostel, Becki Falwell told Granda that Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer, was going to “take care of those guys that are suing us,” Granda told POLITICO.
People involved in the lawsuit had obtained compromising photos of Becki Falwell, Granda said.
“Michael is well-connected in Miami. He will get this buried and will make those photos go away,” Becki Falwell said of Cohen, according to Granda.
Since Trump became president, Jerry Falwell has enjoyed unusual access to the administration, being invited along with top donors to visit the White House for a mid-term election night watch party in 2018 and, according to Falwell, even being offered the job of Education secretary.
Falwell’s close relationship with Trump also served to invite further scrutiny of his conduct. POLITICO reported on Falwell’s sometimes bawdy behavior and how Liberty did business with companies owned by Falwell’s friends and family, and sold property to family and friends without always making proper disclosures.
Last year, POLITICO published photos of Falwell and his family visiting a nightclub in Miami, where they were seen on the dance floor and holding beverages. Jerry Falwell said the photos were manipulated. Students at Liberty can be penalized for co-ed dancing, and drinking alcohol can lead to a suspension.
Cohen’s role in helping Falwell out of a jam with explicit photos also came to light. Cohen was secretly taped discussing helping Falwells when "private" photos got in someone else's hands by comedian Tom Arnold.
Granda, in detailing the extent of his relationship with the Falwells for the first time, said he met the couple in 2012, while working at the Fontainebleau, when Becki approached him while he was talking to a group of young women.
"During my work shift at the Fontainebleau Hotel in March 2012, I was chatting with some girls my age (20 at the time)," Granda told POLITICO. "Becki said, 'Those girls don’t know what they’re doing, you need someone with more experience.'"
After chatting, Granda said, Becki suggested they go to a hotel room.
"And then she goes, 'But one thing.' And I'm like, "Okay.' And she's like, 'My husband likes to watch.' And just then he comes out and he's wearing a Speedo."
The exchange in Miami started an affair that lasted seven years. For much of its duration, the Falwells would fly to Miami multiple times a year and Granda would visit the Falwells’ farm in Virginia, Granda told POLITICO.
While he would have sex with Becki, Jerry Falwell would watch both in person and on tapes.
“He enjoyed watching us in person and also remotely through video cameras. He also listened to our phone calls,” Granda said. Granda declined to answer questions about how much of his relationship with the Falwells involved him and Becki exclusively, without Jerry present.
Granda said he decided to come forward and speak about the situation for a number of reasons, including his desire to break free from the Falwell family, his frustration over the amount of money paid to people to settle the dispute over the Miami hostel, and "yes, boiling frustration over the Falwell’s refusal to purchase my 24.9 percent equity stake" in the hostel.
Granda and the Falwells remained in touch through Trump's term as president, according to Granda's account.
But Falwell’s own behavior grew more bizarre, at least for the president of a Christian university.
There was the Instagram photo that he posted and deleted of himself vacationing on a yacht with his pants unzipped and his arm around his wife’s assistant, which led to his indefinite leave of absence.
Earlier in the summer, Falwell had tweeted a photo that included an image of a man in a Ku Klux Klan hood and a man wearing blackface on a mask.
The photo and accompanying text were intended to be satire relating to Virginia Gov. Northam’s mask mandate, he explained.
On Monday, reports circulated that Falwell was resigning from Liberty. But Falwell told POLITICO on Monday he was not leaving his post.
"I have not resigned," Falwell said.
Later, the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying he would indeed be stepping down.
Liberty's board of directors plans to meet on Tuesday.
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