Jerry Falwell Jr. was in a throuple that included another man -- and it's not the only one

Throws wife under the bus, claiming she had "affair." But pool boy says it was a sexual relationship with both of them. And there are likely others.

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Jerry Falwell Jr. has now officially resigned as president of Liberty University — after clearly fighting against the resignation all day yesterday. But it’s done.

Let’s be clear: He was brought down by the blatant hypocrisy of condemning homosexuality, adultery, and premarital sex, and prescribing how Americans should conduct their relationships and sex lives, while he and his wife apparently had a sexual relationship with another man, together. I couldn’t care less what the hell consenting adults do — unless they are hypocrites trying to harm people and take away their rights while they’re engaging in exactly the same actions they rail against.

As Reuters reported in an exclusive interview, Giancarlo Granda, the former pool boy who met the Falwells at the Fountainbleu hotel in Miami Beach in 2012 when he was 21, alleges “he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader.”

Granda showed Reuters emails, text messages and other evidence that he says demonstrate the sexual nature of his relationship with the couple, who have been married since 1987. “Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda said in an interview. Now 29, he described the liaisons as frequent – “multiple times per year” – and said the encounters took place at hotels in Miami and New York, and at the Falwells’ home in Virginia.

Jerry Falwell Jr. had been on an indefinite leave since early August after sexually suggestive Instagram photos he posted caused a backlash, including a call from right-wing congressman Mark Walker that he resign. But, considering all the outrageous things Falwell had done in the past, the photos didn’t seem like enough to push him out. It appeared that Falwell, Liberty University and maybe even GOP officials knew something else was coming down the pike and wanted him out of the spotlight.

Trying to get ahead of the story he obviously knew was coming, Falwell told the conservative Washington Examiner in a statement the night before the Reuters piece broke that he was suffering from “depression” because his wife had an “affair” with a man. He claimed the man had been trying to “extort” the couple for money — something which Granda adamantly denied. Falwell claimed that he was “not involved” in the relationship, trying to intimate he didn’t know about it.

But as I wrote here several weeks ago, all of the evidence of three-ways with Granda — and perhaps with other men over the years — was evident from reporting in Politco, the Miami Herald, Buzzfeed, The New York Times and elsewhere.

“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,” Politico reported in a piece last September. Per Politico:

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….

…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.

The trainer, Ben Crosswhite, is someone else who, like Granda, the Falwells seem to have befriended and given special treatment:

The Falwells’ close relationship with Crosswhite is the source of consternation for some of Liberty’s top brass because of what they characterize as a sweetheart business deal Falwell had the university offer Crosswhite.

On July 23, 2013, Liberty University began renting space to Crosswhite for use as a fitness center. “The facility was specifically built into the old Racket Club for Jerry and Becki to train privately” with Crosswhite…

After the Falwells met Granda, they spent a lot of time with him, hiking and water skiing in Virginia, as The New York Times reported, and invested $1.8 million dollars in a gay-friendly hostel in Miami Beach he bought that was known as a den of sex. The only reason we know any of this is that a Miami Beach father and son sued Granda and the Falwells, claiming they were promised a share in the hostel, a case that was eventually settled out of court but blew this story wide open.

As I noted in that piece a few weeks ago, there may be more to come:

Reportedly, Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen is in possession of a photo of Falwell’s wife — and perhaps Falwell himself and Granda — a photo Cohen describes as “terrible,” and which was among other photos. Cohen has also said, in the context of discussing the photos and Granda and others who might have had the photos in their possession, that this photo and other photos he saw are the type that are “between a husband and wife — and the whole bit.”

The “whole bit” opened up many possibilities. That all came from actor and comedian Tom Arnold, you may recall, in a tape-recorded phone call with Cohen. Someone had the photos, and Cohen, who met Falwell when Trump spoke at Liberty University during the 2016 campaign, helped out Falwell by getting a hold of them in only the way Cohen can and destroying them (except the one he still has in his possession). Shortly after, Falwell endorsed Donald Trump — at Cohen’s urging — stunning the world, especially since he was set to endorse Ted Cruz before the Iowa primary.

Now, as Trump is in the middle of the 2020 Republican National Convention trying to save his re-election as he continues to sabotage himself, the Falwell scandal is not only a distraction. It’s emblematic of the fraudulent, lying, cheating Trump era, which must come to a close in November.

UPDATE: This Twitter thread is a statement from Giancarlo Granda:

Michelangelo Signorile, subscribe to my newsletter @MSignorile

From Giancarlos Granda, the former pool boy who says he had a sexual relationship with #JerryFallwellJr and his wife: "They brought me on multiple trips and vacations, including to their family farm in Virginia."