The decisions were rooted in each's personality: Jerry Jr. had aggressive business instincts, and Jonathan was more charismatic and interested in ministry.

Beginning in 2001, Falwell had established two companies for the purpose of making property deals with Liberty-affiliated nonprofits, and his two sons and their wives were on Liberty's payroll.

[5] A 2019 Politico article described the university as a "dictatorship" in which Falwell ruled through fear; it also reported that the university had sold merchandise promoting Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and that Falwell Jr. had crude discussions about his sex life at work and had shown other Liberty employees provocative photos of his wife.

[9][10] The photo was taken at a theme party where they dressed as characters from the raunchy Canadian television sitcom Trailer Park Boys.

[15][16] Because he is leaving his position without a formal accusation or admission of wrongdoing, Falwell will receive a $10.5 million severance package.

[18] On April 15, 2021, Liberty University sued Falwell for $40 million in damages for breach of contract and violation of fiduciary duty.

[23] In January 2017, Falwell said that he had been asked by President Trump to head a task force on reforms for the United States Department of Education.

[24] In June 2017, Falwell confirmed to the Chronicle of Higher Education that he would be one of 15 college presidents participating in the task force.

But that's how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.In August 2013, Falwell announced that if the federal government forced recipients of its aid to comply with LGBTQ discrimination protections, he would forgo the money.

[28] In March 2019, Falwell again caused controversy among LGBT advocates at Liberty University when he said his granddaughter would be "raised according to her God-given gender".

[35][36] It was later revealed that Falwell made his endorsement after Trump's personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen had helped the university president recover compromising photos of himself.

[37] On July 21, 2016, at the RNC convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Falwell called Trump "America's blue-collar billionaire" and "one of the greatest visionaries of our time", and said he was the candidate most likely to defend the "right to bear arms", "stop Iran...from becoming a nuclear power", and "appoint conservative pro-life justices to the Supreme Court".

[36] In August 2017, following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Falwell defended President Trump, saying that he didn't have "a racist bone in his body," adding that the president was being attacked by "thin-skinned Americans": "You know, he's a little abrasive sometimes in the way he says things, and we have some thin-skinned Americans sometimes who ignore the substance of what he's saying because they're put off by his demeanor," Falwell said.

"[43] In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began to spread quickly in the United States, leading to the widespread closures of schools and universities.

[50] Virginia's governor, Ralph Northam, criticized Falwell's decision to reopen Liberty University, citing scripture (1 Corinthians 4:2) to support his statement.

[52] Prior to the school's reopening on March 23, Liberty University's lead physician Thomas W. Eppes Jr. informed Falwell that, "We've lost the ability to corral this thing."

[53] An anonymous student filed suit against Liberty University in April, stating in the lawsuit, "Liberty's decision to tell its students that they could remain on campus to continue to use their housing, meal plans, parking, and the benefits of the services and activities for which their fees paid, was not only illusory and empty – because there were no more on-campus classes -- but it was also extremely dangerous and irresponsible.

The plaintiffs, a man and his son, claimed they had helped to think of the hostel business idea but had then been wrongfully left out of the venture.

Falwell apologized for the tweet in early June after being widely criticized by African-American alumni for being insensitive to the black community.

Shortly after, on August 23, 2020, Falwell announced in a public statement that his wife had an "improper relationship" several years earlier with a man who later threatened to reveal the affair "unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies".

The suit also alleged that Falwell failed to disclose to the university's board of trustees his scandalous affair and "personal impairment by alcohol".

[69][70] Tilley admitted to a years-long affair with the pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda, starting in March 2012 and continuing through 2014.

Granda denied the accusation but did not comment on the rest of the interview, promising answers in a forthcoming book[61] and Hulu documentary, God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty.