Giancarlo Granda — the former pool boy who allegedly had a consensual years-long three-way relationship with disgraced Christian leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and Falwell’s wife, Becki — said that Donald Trump’s attorney helped hide their relationship shortly before Falwell endorsed Trump for president.
In a new documentary, God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty, Granda said that Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen helped end a business relationship between Granda and the Falwells involving a hotel as a way to help dissolve any connection between them.
Becki Falwell met Granda in 2012. Granda, who was 20 at the time, said he quickly began having sex with Mrs. Falwell while her husband watched and eventually joined in. The couple was in their 50s.
At the time, Jerry Falwell Jr. was also the president of Liberty University, the evangelical school founded by his rabidly anti-LGBTW father, Jerry Falwell Sr.
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Falwell Jr. later gave Granda $1.8 million to help buy an LGBTQ-friendly Miami Beach hotel. The couple and the young man co-owned the business, though Granda operated it.
In 2015, two people, described by Raw Story as “Miami real estate crooks,” allegedly tried to blackmail Granda and the Falwells with photos of them having sex. To resolve the matter, Falwell enlisted the help of Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen, Granda said.
In the documentary, Granda said that Jerry Falwell told him, “Michael Cohen approached me and Donald Trump is going to run for president, and they want my endorsement.”
“If Jerry was going to get more involved with politicians just like his dad did,” Granda said, “he had to ensure that all his loose ends were tied.”
Cohen helped make it so that Granda and the Falwells were no longer co-owners of the hotel. On January 2016, Falwell endorsed Trump, giving the thrice-married businessman credit among evangelical voters. An estimated 81 percent of Evangelical voters ended up voting for Trump in 2016.
“If I would’ve known that accepting this woman’s invitation to go back to her hotel room would’ve led to a scandal involving the president of the largest Christian university in the world and the president of the United States, I would have walked away and just enjoyed my private life,” Granda said in the documentary.
Granda’s claims match an earlier recording released by actor Tom Arnold in which Cohen admitted to helping suppress “racy” pictures of Becki Falwell. Some believe that Granda had tried to blackmail the Falwells, but Granda has denied his involvement in the revenge porn scheme.
Details of the Falwells’ sketchy business and sexual dealings surfaced in 2019, after which Granda accused Mr. Falwell of relentlessly harassing him. Falwell eventually resigned as president of Liberty University in August 2020. He later said that his shady dealings only surfaced because he endorsed Trump.
The Falwells have largely disappeared from the public eye after public interest in the scandal died down. Meanwhile, Granda recently profited off of it by publishing a tell-all book called Off the Deep End: Jerry and Becki Falwell and the Collapse of an Evangelical Dynasty.
