Politico Expose: Liberty University - A Culture of Fear and Self-Dealing

Jerry Falwell Jr. and wife Becki.

Like many I have taken a certain amount of delight in seeing stories leak out raising questions about the seemingly bizarre relationship between Jerry Falwell, Jr. - a strident homophobe and Trump sycophant - and a Miami cabana boy (and possible compromising photos) and a young stud personal trainer, each of whom landed million dollar plus sweetheart deals from Mr. Falwell/Liberty University.  One of the goals of this blog from the outset has been looking at hypocrisy among both the political classes and "conservative Christians" who typically display little Christ-like behavior and all too often have a leadership focused on disseminating hatred while enriching themselves. Now, a major expose by Politico breaths not only new life into questions of possible sexual impropriety on the part of Falwell - and his wife - and even larger questions of financial irregularities involving Liberty University assets.  Then too, there are stories of dictatorial behavior and retaliatory  retribution against university staff for challenging the Falwell's fiats not to mention activities that suggest Liberty should lose its tax-exempt status.  Here are excerpts from the Politico piece (read the entire article):

At Liberty University, all anyone can talk about is Jerry Falwell Jr. Just not in public. . . . . That’s beginning to change.

Over the past year, Falwell, a prominent evangelical leader and supporter of President Donald Trump, has come under increasing scrutiny. News outlets have reported on business deals by Liberty University benefiting Falwell’s friends. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen claimed that he had helped Falwell clean up racy “personal” photographs.

Based on scores of new interviews and documents obtained for this article, concerns about Falwell’s behavior go well beyond that—and it’s causing longtime, loyal Liberty University officials to rapidly lose faith in him. . . . . and why they don’t think he’s the right man to lead Liberty University or serve as a figurehead in the Christian conservative movement.

In interviews over the past eight months, they depicted how Falwell and his wife, Becki, consolidated power at Liberty University and how Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends.

“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”

Liberty employees detailed other instances of Falwell’s behavior that they see as falling short of the standard of conduct they expect from conservative Christian leaders, from partying at nightclubs, to graphically discussing his sex life with employees, to electioneering that makes uneasy even those who fondly remember the heyday of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the school’s founder and Falwell Jr.’s father, and his Moral Majority.

[T]hese new revelations speak to rising discontent with Falwell’s stewardship. The people interviewed for this article include members of Liberty’s board of trustees, senior university officials, and rank-and-file staff members who work closely with Falwell. They are reluctant to speak out—there’s no organized, open dissent to Falwell on campus—but they said they see it as necessary to save Liberty University and the values it once stood for.

Members of the Liberty University community are generally reluctant to go on the record. The school uses nondisclosure agreements to prohibit many university employees or board members from openly discussing what they’ve seen Falwell do. (“All trustees sign a confidentiality agreement that does not expire at the close of Board service,” Liberty’s attorney told board members in an email that was sent earlier this month after the school received inquiries from reporters on some of the issues outlined in this article.) Tenure and its protections are not available to Liberty faculty members outside the law school. If you teach or work at Liberty, you must get approval from Falwell’s office before you speak to the media. Talk to reporters without his approval—or publicly criticize him, even obliquely—and you could lose your job.

“It’s a dictatorship,” one current high-level employee of the school said. “Nobody craps at the university without Jerry’s approval.”

[Liberty University’s] growth is driven largely by a vast increase in the number of online students at the school, who now number some 95,000. Many Falwell confidants are concerned with where they see that university tuition money going: into university-funded construction and real estate projects that enrich the Falwell family and their friends.

Experts on tax law and nonprofit organizations said that having the president of a nonprofit university directing university business to a company led by his son would be troubling.

“It raises red flags to have your kids being able to profit off the activities of the organization,” said Philip Hackney, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School who specializes in taxation and nonprofit management. As a general matter of law, “a nonprofit director or officer owes a ‘duty of loyalty’ to the nonprofit. What this means is he cannot take unfair advantage of the nonprofit he controls to his advantage.”

Senior Liberty officials might whisper about the propriety of these business deals, but they told me that Falwell’s decisions on campus are rarely ever challenged by the school’s board of trustees. “There’s no accountability,” a former high-ranking university officer said. “Jerry’s got pretty free reign to wheel and deal professionally and personally. The board will approve an annual budget, but beyond that … he doesn’t go to the board to get approval. … It simply doesn’t happen.”

In July 2014, Falwell, Trey and Moon traveled to Miami together. Falwell said in his statement that he recalls “discussing University business” on the trip. During the trip, photos were taken of Jerry and Trey Falwell partying at a Miami nightclub—photos that multiple Liberty University officials said Jerry Falwell tried to make disappear.

According to several people with direct knowledge of the situation, Falwell—the president of a conservative Christian college that frowns upon co-ed dancing (Liberty students can receive demerits if seen doing it) and prohibits alcohol use (for which students can be expelled)—was angry that photos of him clubbing made it up online. To remedy the situation, multiple Liberty staffers said Falwell went to John Gauger, whom they characterized as his “IT guy,” and asked him to downgrade the photos’ prominence on Google searches.

In May 2019, Reuters reported that Cohen helped Falwell contain the fallout from some racy “personal” photos. Later that month, Falwell took to Todd Starnes’ radio talk show to rebut the claims.

“This report is not accurate,” Falwell said. “There are no compromising or embarrassing photos of me.” Members of Falwell’s inner circle took note of the phrasing.  “If you read how Jerry is framing his response, you can see he is being very selective,” one of Falwell’s confidants said. Racy photos do exist, but at least some of the photos are of his wife, Becki, as the Miami Herald confirmed in June.

Longtime Liberty officials close to Falwell told me the university president has shown or texted his male confidants—including at least one employee who worked for him at Liberty—photos of his wife in provocative and sexual poses.

At Liberty, Falwell is “very, very vocal” about his “sex life,” in the words of one Liberty official—a characterization multiple current and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story support. In a car ride about a decade ago with a senior university official who has since left Liberty, “all he wanted to talk about was how he would nail his wife, how she couldn’t handle [his penis size], and stuff of that sort,” this former official recalled.

More than simply talking with employees about his wife in a sexual manner, on at least one occasion, Falwell shared a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be a French maid costume, according to a longtime Liberty employee with firsthand knowledge of the image and the fallout that followed. 

Falwell intended to send the image to his and Becki’s personal trainer, Ben Crosswhite, as a “thank you” for helping his wife achieve her fitness goals, the employee said. In the course of texting, Falwell accidentally sent the message to several other people, necessitating a cleanup. . . . Crosswhite did not respond to requests for comment.

“When I hear the laundry list of interested transactions and the questionable use of Liberty University’s assets … I hear a nonprofit that is not well-governed in a sense that I would hope and expect from a sizable nonprofit,” Pitt Law’s Hackney said. “It has the sense of being managed for a charismatic leader and his family and friends rather than for the mission of Liberty.”

Under Falwell Jr., Liberty University is “a totally dysfunctional organization,” one board member wrote in an email reviewed for this article. “Very similar to Trump’s White House.”

Let's hope the scrutiny and media coverage continues and intensifies.  In my opinion, Falwell is a fraud and it's past time that his scamming of the faithful stops.

Falwell Pool Boy Redux: Falwell Steered Real Estate Deal To 23 Year Old Male Personal Trainer

The Falwell's "personal trainer" who received a
sweetheart deal on Liberty University assets.

It would seem that Jerry Falwell, Jr., and his wife have a thing for young male 20 somethings.  First there was the story of their million dollar plus financial dealings benefiting a young pool boy at a Florida resort hotel which involved Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen.  Now, there is a breaking story about a very lucrative deal involving Liberty University properties that were steered to the Falwell's 23 year old male personal trainer.  Details of the deal have some auditors questioning whether the sweetheart deal was a misuse of the non-profit university's assets. Others, of course, wonder at the unusual largess directed a then 23 year old.   Crooks and Liars and Reuters both have coverage on the new questions about Falwell.  Crooks and Liars notes:

Falwell, Jr. was so impressed with Crosswhite that he gave the property to him below market, with a guaranteed lease, and a below-market interest rate on the loan to pay the place off. Sweet deal if you can get it. I wonder what he had to do to score that kind of deal.

Here are highlights from the Reuters piece:

Around 2011, Falwell, president of Liberty University in Virginia, and his wife, Rebecca, began personal fitness training sessions with Benjamin Crosswhite, then a 23-year-old recent Liberty graduate. Now, after a series of university real estate transactions signed by Falwell, Crosswhite owns a sprawling 18-acre racquet sports and fitness facility on former Liberty property. Last year, a local bank approved a line of credit allowing Crosswhite’s business to borrow as much as $2 million against the property.

Falwell, one of the most influential right-wing Christian leaders in the United States, has been buffeted by disclosures about his private dealings over the last year and a half.

A Florida lawsuit brought public scrutiny to a relationship between the Falwells and Giancarlo Granda, a young man they befriended while he was working as a pool attendant at a luxury Miami Beach hotel and later backed in a business venture involving a youth hostel. Falwell filed an affidavit in 2018 saying he used his own wealth to lend $1.8 million to the $4.65 million project with Granda.

And U.S. President Trump’s now-jailed fixer, Michael Cohen, has said he helped the Falwells suppress racy personal photos, as Reuters reported this May, in the months before Cohen persuaded Falwell to endorse Trump’s 2016 White House bid.

The support Falwell provided to the two young men, Granda and Crosswhite, has some parallels. Both were aided in business ventures and both have flown on the nonprofit university’s corporate jet.

One difference: When Falwell helped Crosswhite, he used the assets of Liberty, the tax-exempt university he has led since 2008. Among the largest Christian universities in the world, Liberty depends on hundreds of millions of dollars its students receive in federally backed student loans and Pell grants.

In 2016, Falwell signed a real estate deal transferring the sports facility, complete with tennis courts and a fitness center owned by Liberty, to Crosswhite. Under the terms, Crosswhite wasn’t required to put any of his own money down toward the purchase price, a confidential sales contract obtained by Reuters shows.

Liberty committed nearly $650,000 up front to lease back tennis courts from Crosswhite at the site for nine years. The school also offered Crosswhite financing, at a low 3% interest rate, to cover the rest of the $1.2 million transaction, the contract shows.

Falwell has “tried to be a business mentor” to Crosswhite, the university statement said, but that effort did not “cause him to abandon his fiduciary duties” to Liberty.

As Liberty’s leader, Falwell draws an annual salary of nearly $1 million, and is obligated to put the university’s financial interests before his own personal interests when conducting Liberty business.

The Falwells brought the trainer along on Liberty’s private jet during a 2012 trip to Miami. Later, Falwell sent an email directing Liberty to lease its gym space to Crosswhite’s fitness business, which began a five year lease in 2013. The cost, according to a lease document: $2,300 per month.

Liberty said Falwell uses the university-chartered jet to fly every year to his annual physical in Miami. Crosswhite joined him in 2012 “to explain to the doctors Mr. Falwell’s diet and exercise program and help document the results,” the university said. Because Liberty’s board requires an annual physical for Falwell, the president doesn’t have to reimburse the university for the corporate jet travel to Miami, the statement said.

Transactions on such favorable terms could raise concerns over stewardship of corporate assets, and potentially insufficient scrutiny by the board, said Anderson, the independent governance specialist.

In an email sent earlier this month, Corry, citing a Reuters reporter’s “persistent” attempts to reach former board members and the Falwells, reminded the former trustees they had signed confidentiality agreements. He told them they were required “forever” to keep secret what they knew about the university.

Is Vladimir Putin playing Trump?

Many in America's foreign policy and national security agencies have expressed alarm over the apparent bromance between Donald Trump.  Many fear that either Putin is playing Trump for a fool - one hears constant concern over his ignorance in foreign affairs and disinclination to educate himself, always claiming to know everything.  Now, a piece in Politico looks at parallels between the Trump-Putin relationship and that of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who ultimately left office amidst numerous scandals.  As the piece noted, many believed that Berlusconi had personal financial benefit from his ties to Putin.  With rumored Russian money propping up Trump's business empire, one needs to wonder whether Trump would sell out America and its allies to further enrich himself.  Here are article excerpts:

In January 2009, the U.S. ambassador in Rome cabled Washington to raise an alarm. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the diplomat wrote, had cultivated a troubling relationship with the country’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

“Berlusconi admires Putin’s macho, decisive, and authoritarian governing style, which the Italian PM believes matches his own,” wrote the ambassador, Ronald P. Spogli. “From the Russian side, it appears that Putin has devoted much energy to developing Berlusconi’s trust.“

The ambassador noted with concern that the brash Italian billionaire, who was driven from office by scandal in 2011, was openly challenging U.S. policy toward Russia and echoing Putin’s views on issues from NATO expansion to Kosovo to missile defense.

And he shared reports from opposition party contacts of a more “nefarious” factor: talk that “Berlusconi and his cronies are profiting personally and handsomely” from business ties to Russia.

Seven years after that cable, disclosed by WikiLeaks, the Berlusconi-Putin bromance has acquired a new resonance, as foreign policy analysts and even some U.S. officials see unsettling echoes in the recent long-distance kinship between the Russian leader and Donald J. Trump.

It may even suggest that Putin is applying a specific method to the GOP nominee. In recent years Putin has befriended several major Western European politicians, including former leaders of France and Germany, who openly challenge U.S. and European policies toward Russia, including NATO’s buildup in Eastern Europe and economic sanctions punishing Putin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

But Trump is most frequently compared to the 79-year-old Berlusconi. Both men are wealthy populists known for their expensive tastes, outrageous rhetoric, relationships with women and all-around showmanship. Like Berlusconi, Trump has demonstrated an unusual affinity for Putin — along with notable dissent from confrontational U.S. and Western European policies toward Russia.

To some, however, it hints at something more.

“The parallels with Trump are a little too disturbing,” says a U.S. government analyst who closely tracked Russia’s relationship with Europe when Berlusconi was in office. “Putin is very strategic. He would focus on people’s vulnerabilities — whether their vanity or greed or financial needs.”

That view echoes the analysis of former deputy CIA director Michael Morell, who recently wrote in The New York Times that Putin, drawing from his background as an intelligence officer, had made a “calculated” overture to Trump early in the presidential campaign, “playing upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him,” and turning Trump into an “unwitting agent” of Russia.

Though Trump, in recent interviews, has downplayed his affinity for Putin, the Republican nominee has also taken several policy positions that echo the Kremlin line. He has questioned the relevance of the 67-year-old NATO alliance, called for U.S.-Russian cooperation against the Islamic State, and questioned U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Moscow after Putin’s forcible March 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Trump’s relationship with Putin — whom Trump says he’s never even met — remains embryonic compared to the extraordinary kinship between the Russian leader and his Italian chum.

As the January 2009 cable noted, the officials also suspected that illicit money might be fueling the friendship. One October 2008 U.S. cable from Rome noted that “many (including his own party officials) suspect [Berlusconi] has a personally and financially enriching relationship” with Putin’s oligarch allies.

In recent weeks, allies of Hillary Clinton have fanned rumors and speculative press reports suggesting that Russian investments in Trump business ventures have influenced his views. Trump and his son Donald Jr. have made numerous trips to Russia exploring business deals there, and in 2008 Donald Jr. told an audience that Russian money makes up a “disproportionate share” of the family company’s assets. Trump has denied having financial ties to Russia, though his refusal to release his tax returns makes that impossible to verify.

Trump Refuses to Release Tax Returns Before Election

I was raised being taught that if you had nothing to hide, then you did not act as if you were hiding something.  The corollary was that if you did have something to hide, then that explained why you were indeed hiding things.  Thus, I have to agree with Mitt Romney that the only reason that Donald Trump is refusing to release his tax returns prior to the November elections is because there is obviously something in them that he believes would be damaging.   We have already learned that Trump's talk about his charitable giving is a lie.  Therefore, one can only wonder what else he is hiding by refusing to release his returns.  Yes, he has the excuse of the supposed ongoing audit, but all of his returns cannot possibly be under audit.  Is Trump afraid that his returns might show that he pays an outrageously low tax rate, that his income is far less than what he boasts, or that he has suffered huge business losses. His intransigence certainly suggest some bombshell is waiting in the returns that he does not want his grievance filled, angry white supporters to see.  Politico looks at Romney's condemnation of Trump for seemingly trying to dupe American voters.  Here are highlights:

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney tore into Donald Trump on Wednesday after it was reported that the party's presumptive nominee would not release his tax returns before the election in November.

"It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service. Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate's representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest," Romney wrote in a Facebook post.

Trump told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that he would not release his tax returns, despite telling radio host Hugh Hewitt in February 2015 that he would do so if he ran for the White House.

While acknowledging that it is not likely, Romney suggested "the potential for hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or other unsavory groups" as a risk "simply too great ... to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commander-in-chief."

Romney blasted Trump's assertion that he could not release taxes while they are being audited, writing that there is "nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited."

"Further, he could release returns for the years immediately prior to the years under audit. There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: There is a bombshell in them," Romney said, repeating a line he used in February. "Given Mr. Trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it's a bombshell of unusual size."

I hate to admit that I agree with Romney on anything, but in this case, I suspect he is right.

After Scandal, Students are Leaving Oral Roberts University

Between students looking to transfer out and a reduced number of applications, Oral Roberts University could see as much as a 13% drop in enrollment come fall as the fallout continues from the financial and sex allegation scandal involving Richard Roberts and his wife (who has been alleged to have a predeliction for under age boys). Personally, I cannot attending a university based on a kooky Christianist agenda, but I am sure some of the students attended with either good intentions or as a result of parental pressure. Now, they are rightfull concerned about the marketability of their diplomas in the wake of the scandal. It's unfortunate for these students that the Roberts were unsrupulous frauds who used the university to enrich themselves. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot's AP coverage of the story:

*

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- As Oral Roberts University prepares to hand out diplomas to its Class of 2008, Anna Siebring, a junior, will be mailing out applications to transfer to another school. Siebring, a government major, is among many students having second thoughts about staying at Oral Roberts after six months of scandal at the evangelical Christian university. She and others fear the furor will reduce the value of any degree they earn there. Some graduates worry that they will have to try twice as hard to market themselves to potential employers after Saturday's commencement.

*

Two university employees who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation said they have been told a much higher figure: around 400. That would amount to a startling drop of almost 13 percent. Oral Roberts spokesman Jeremy Burton said the decline has less to do with students leaving and more to do with fewer new ones enrolling.

*

Administrators are urging patience from professors and students. Last week, Fagin conceded it would take "a while to turn a big ship." Similarly, Green said it will take years to make necessary overhauls and begin rebuilding trust. He has already dissolved the old board of regents and established a new set of bylaws.

*

But that doesn't appear enough for sophomore Andrew Saah, who has already been accepted at the University of Maryland as a transfer student and is thinking about making the jump. He said Oral Roberts needs to change its culture to give more voice to its students.

Oral Roberts back at ORU - Now Wants to Seek Mediation

Interesting how Oral Roberts University now wants to mediate with the fired professors who have filed a lawsuit and let loose a fire storm of possible financial and sexual irregularities at the University. I suspect the media coverage is starting to take a toll and, if mediation were successful, much of the titillating information that might come out at a trial can be kept under wraps. Here are some highlight's from today's Tulsa World (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071023_1_A1_spanc37824):

At the ORU chapel service, Oral Roberts, 89, addressing students from a chair on stage, said: “I love you. I believe in you. I trust you. God brought you here, and you’re special to the Roberts family.” Roberts told the crowd that every allegation raised by a lawsuit against ORU and his son, university President Richard Roberts, was false. He said he was proud of ORU and its accomplishments “for the word of God,” and he said “the devil has come in to steal it away.”“The devil is not going to steal ORU,” he said.Oral Roberts said the university was born out of a healing ministry, and so ORU would turn to mediation this week to resolve the lawsuit.“This will be over and behind us, and my son will be back and be president of Oral Roberts University,” he said.

On Monday, Gary Richardson, attorney for the former professors, said he and his clients asked to work through the issues with ORU before filing the lawsuit but did not get a response from the university.Now, they do not want to resolve the situation with mediation — rather than in court — unless ORU officials “quit adamantly telling the public that they’ve done nothing wrong and become somewhat humbled by being caught and willing to acknowledge the imperfections of how they’ve operated.”“We would prefer to move forward and develop the information and develop the case,” Richardson said.

I hope the plaintiffs hang tough and the financial and sexual improprieties come out in full view for the world to see. It will not be the Devil that takes away ORU - it will be hypocrisy and false Christians who do that.