Liberty University Just Sued Jerry Falwell, Jr. for $10 Million

Liberty University is suing Jerry Falwell, Jr. for $10 million, and that giggle you just suppressed is what schadenfreude sounds like.

The school filed the lawsuit yesterday, claiming Falwell breached his contract, misled the school’s board, and concealed his alcohol problem. It comes months after Falwell was forced to resign following a wild sex scandal that involved his wife, a pool boy, other Liberty University students, and a constant stream of people telling their sides of the story.

Here’s Bob Smietana of Religion News Service, who was first to report the news:

A complaint in the lawsuit, filed in a Lynchburg, Virginia, circuit court, claims Falwell “fashioned a deceitful scheme to manipulate the Executive Committee of Liberty” while negotiating his last contract.

…

The complaint claims Falwell devised a plan to cover up the relationship [between Giancarlo Granda and Becki Falwell], fearing Granda would make it public, and that Granda asked Falwell for payoffs in order to keep racy photos of Becki Falwell out of the public eye.

…

Then, in 2019, he negotiated a new employment agreement with the board, which included a raise and a more favorable severance if he were fired. The complaint claims Falwell continued to conceal his dealings with Granda while trying to create a “safety net” for himself.

The lawsuit itself isn’t available yet online, but $10 million is about how much Falwell stood to receive as part of his severance package.

In case you need a reminder, Falwell’s downfall really began last August after he posted a bizarre picture of himself with his fly unzipped and belly out, then got caught “liking” photos of younger women (including Liberty students) in not-so-Christian poses.

But those were sideshows from the real scandal involving Granda, who told Reuters in August that he regularly slept with Becki Falwell — over the course of several years — while Falwell himself watched from the corner of a room. Days after that revelation, we learned that Becki had a thing for students at Liberty after one former student (a friend of her son’s!) claimed she crawled into his bed and performed oral sex on him.

Falwell resigned around that time. And then, weeks later, he fell down the stairs because he got hammered.

Perhaps even more bizarre than any of that was how Falwell sued Liberty for defamation in October — as if the school made him look bad! — before dropping the lawsuit in December.

And now Liberty, which just confirmed yesterday that Falwell’s son no longer works there, has filed this lawsuit against Jerry.

Atheists couldn’t dream of an implosion this glorious.