Now that top Trump supporter Jerry Falwell, Jr. is gone from the school his father founded, reports about his management – or mismanagement – of the top Christian evangelical college reveal how his “entire family made millions off Liberty University,” as the NY Post reports.
“Falwell, who took over as president of Liberty in 2007 after years as a lawyer handling its real estate interests, intertwined his personal finances with those of the evangelical Christian university founded by his father,” the Post’s Paula Froelich reveals.
“During his time at Liberty, Falwell made sure his entire family fed on the cash cow by putting his two sons and their wives on the payroll. He also transferred a large Liberty facility to his personal trainer and had a friend’s construction company manage a university expansion project that cost hundreds of millions, according to Reuters.”
The sex scandal that derailed Falwell, Jr. was centered on a pool boy who says he had an “intimate relationship” with Falwell’s wife and that “Jerry enjoyed watching.” Falwell says he was not involved, but characterized his wife’s affair as a “fatal attraction.”
“Falwell is also said to have established a pair of companies that allowed him to make property deals with nonprofits affiliated with Liberty, Reuters found. In each of the deals, Falwell played multiple roles with potentially conflicting interests: He was an officer of the university, a board member for the nonprofit selling the land and a private developer who could profit from the transactions.”
Citing that Reuters report, the Post calls Falwell’s questionable financial arrangements “dodgy deals.”
Falwell, a top Trump supporter whose early endorsement as a leading evangelical helped Trump win the White House, called Reuters “liars,” and reportedly said: “You got nothing,”
“Trust me,’” he added, “you do not want to mess with me, OK?”