Jerry Falwell Jr.'s feud with Liberty University escalates with dueling lawsuits

Evangelical college Liberty University has filed a new lawsuit against former president Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 million, the New York Times reported on Friday. The new suit claims that Falwell "withheld scandalous and potentially damaging information" and failed to disclose "his personal impairment by alcohol" from Liberty's board of trustees while negotiating a new contract to head the Virginia school in 2019. "Mr. Falwell claimed to the committee that this would serve as a 'safety valve' for both him and the university if his full-throated support of former President Donald J. Trump proved damaging to the school's reputation," the Times reported. There were murmurs of impropriety in 2019 when Politico reported that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen helped "clean up racy 'personal' photographs" of Falwell's wife, Becki, including one of her in a French maid costume, which Falwell had allegedly sent to a number of employees at his evangelical university.