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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Falwell and the Pool Boy*

Falwell and the Pool Boy*

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*(Alternate Title: Michael Cohen: Zelig for Scumbags)

So, while we wait for the next irruption of lethal folly from Dear Hairpiece, how’s about a little fun from the Evangelosphere:

The prominent evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. has for the first time acknowledged putting up $1.8 million for a business venture managed by a young pool attendant whom he and his wife befriended during a stay at a luxury hotel in 2012.

This story has been kicking around for a while:

BuzzFeed News first reported in May on a lawsuit that claimed the Falwells had developed a “friendly relationship” with Giancarlo Granda, then 21 years old, at the lavish Fontainebleau Miami Beach, flying him in a private jet, offering “financial assistance,” and ultimately setting him up in business. [All links in quotes are from the originals.]

“Friendly relationship” is a nice way of putting…whatever.

I got no problem with whatever connection either or both professional Christians and Mr. Granda may have.  But there is a sinner, stone and glass house problem here, and I’d say the good (Narr: he was not good) Mr. Falwell is up to his neck in “got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

What makes this all a bit more than the usual sexual fear-mongering-Christianist-hypocrite schandenfreudal moment is this. Falwell was famously the first major Talibangical leader to back Trump, giving him a venue at Liberty (sic!) University and a powerful endorsement.  This didn’t come out of the blue:  “Trump visited Liberty University Sept. 24, 2012, to give the convocation address.”

The timing was convenient:

Six months after evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife befriended a Miami hotel pool attendant in 2012, the young man was introduced to Donald Trump during a visit to the large religious school Falwell runs, Liberty University, according to a photograph sent to BuzzFeed News.

Guess who connects Falwell, the pool boy, and the failed president.

No prizes for guessing Michael Freaking Cohen.

Why was Cohen there? Turns out…

Cohen was an acquaintance of Falwell’s and helped arrange Falwell’s milestone endorsement of Trump during the 2016 election campaign, BuzzFeed News reported, citing a high-ranking official at Liberty University.

But not to worry:

As BuzzFeed News had previously reported, a source close to Falwell said he was “sure” Falwell had discussed the Granda case with Cohen prior to his unexpected decision to lend his backing to Trump. There is no evidence that these discussions played any part in the endorsement.

That’s their story, and I’d say they’d best stick to it.

Open thread!

Image:  William Morris Hunt, The Bathers, 1877

 

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    a young pool attendant whom he and his wife befriended during a stay at a luxury hotel in 2012.

    Sounds an awful lot like the beginning of how Mr. Versace met his end at the hands of the handsome Andrew Cunanan.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    And since we’re talking about young handsome men, I hate rooting for the Washington NFL team – but I need the Titans to lose.

  3. 3.

    Olivia

    Did it have to be the “pool boy”? That is too much like a bad movie. Why not the plumber or the lawn sprinkler repair guy?

  4. 4.

    Lyrebird

    @Corner Stone: I’m rooting for all the TV networks to start referring to that team as the Washington Redpants! Maybe the owner won’t budge, but with enough advertiser pressure, maybe everyone else can make the change irreversible. Maybe they’d prefer “Warriors” or something, whatever, they need to stop normalizing a slur.

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    But there is a sinner, stone and glass house problem here

    Negative ten points for misuse of mixed metaphor, Professor Levenson.

    I wonder if Mr. Granda is shopping his story to the highest bidder. This herring is stinkier than decade old gefilte fish.

  9. 9.

    maya

    As I roamed around on the streets of Miami,
    I said to mine-self, ‘This is one fancy town’,
    So I called up mine partner and said, ‘Hello Sammy,
    Come pack up your satchel and mosey on down’

    Kinda just hung out there over the plate

  10. 10.

    Yarrow

    Ah, the evangelical Christians begin to show up in the story. We’re fairly far along now, then. Can’t wait to see the evangelical organizations’ Russian money laundering finally make the news.

  11. 11.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    $1.8 million sure sounds like one of the more pricey pay-away-the-gay schemes in the storied Xstian liturgical record.

    Will be great fun if somehow the Russians, who really know how to cultivate their garden of marks (hey, hey, NRA, who you gonna get killt today?), tipped off Trumpworld about the (alleged) Talibangelical tryst twist inna kompromat konspiracy.

    Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to! Cokie’s Law demands it!

  13. 13.

    hitchhiker

    I’ll be quite surprised if this story fades away. It’s got all the necessary ingredients for a good old-fashioned American scandal.

    Sex
    Money
    Hypocrisy
    Power
    Secrecy
    Private jet
    Cover story
    Evangelicals

  14. 14.

    Eric U.

    @Lyrebird: I swear the sports guys go out of their way to say the team’s name instead of “Washington.” I was halfway tempted to start calling out people on twitter when they use the team’s name the last time I saw them play

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    @hitchhiker: Don’t forget the big scarlet A here. Odds are that’s lurking somewhere around this mishegas. Bonus points if we’re talking gay sexytimes here.

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Was that Cokie? I thought it was Nooners. We’re gonna need trading cards at the end of all this.

  16. 16.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sukabi:

    Blackmail

    I honestly don’t think blackmail is likely here! It’s not necessary. Cohen is a Fixer. Handling the financial aspects of rich men’s philandering is his job. It is completely natural for him to form a bridge between clients when they could use connections to each other. Also, people wildly underestimate how good a fit Trump is for evangelical desires. You may notice a moral equivalency between him and Falwell in this specific story.

  18. 18.

    Emma

    Dear Author: We received your submission and we are sorry to tell you we will not be publishing it. However, since you show some promise, we would like to point out that any good modern murder mystery tries to avoid the cliches of earlier decades. A religious leader and a pool boy reeks of 1970s cheap titillation paperbacks. We would consider a more realistic premise and a less lurid language. Yours truly, the Editors.

  19. 19.

    Patricia Kayden

    So what was the blackmail Trump used to get Franklin Graham’s unabashed support? It would be reckless not to wildly speculate.

  20. 20.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Olivia: Even their world-historical hypocrisy is unimaginative.

    What’s next, a tearful, sloppy, maundering, pathetic on-air “I-Have-Sinnnnned!” confession?

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    “Skeevy is as skeevy does.” said somebody’s mama.

    The grifting Franklins are getting progressively worse as generations turn, but the Fallwells live in a moral basement so vast and deep they can only be massive grifters and tools. It’s their way. But my, what a sparkling pool.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano:

    Negative ten points for misuse of mixed metaphor, Professor Levenson.

    I saw it more as a cleverly-constructed portmanteau metaphor, and assigned him ten bonus points for creativity.

  26. 26.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Yutsano: I is mistaken n you is correct. Nooners it was!

    In my meager defense, concern trolls is so taxonomically similar, their baseline camouflage makes ’em hard to differentiate in the political wilds.

  28. 28.

    schrodingers_cat

    MAGA Haberman is still spinning for T

    At the midpoint of his term, the president has grown more sure of his own judgment (WTF?) and more isolated from anyone else’s than at any point since he took office

    Reporting delusions of grandeur, as fact.

  29. 29.

    Yarrow

    @Yutsano: It’s more than that. Take a look at their organizations. Like the NRA, some of them are Russian money laundromats. Of course other more salacious reasons for blackmail aren’t ruled out.

  30. 30.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sukabi:

    Cohen’s 3 clients did not include Falwell.

    Then why is Cohen even mentioned here? How is he supposed to help anybody blackmail anybody without inside information? He just happened to be present? So? Or he said ‘I think Falwell would be a good fit for you’?

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @sukabi: Help my failing elderly memory. Wasn’t there a report that Cohen had arranged a payoff to a pron star other that Stormy Daniels for one of his clients? I think I recall the “a” word (as in “roe v. wAde”) being involved in that one.

  34. 34.

    lgerard

    Speaking of movies, the Liberty University produced film “The Trump Prophecy” landed like the Hindenburg. Even the evangelicals hated it.

  35. 35.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @germy: Is that what the kids’re calling it these days?

    Remember, “befriended” is Sampson erecting the rock of St. Peter here! Attention must be paid!

  36. 36.

    sukabi

    @Ken: Playboy Bunny paid off 1.8is million for Broidy.

    Trump, Broidy and Hannity were Cohen’s 3 ‘official clients as exposed this spring when a judge ruled he had to name the 3rd, which was Hannity.

    Adding, yes a termination was involved, probably why the payment was 10x the regular amount.

  37. 37.

    West of the Rockies

    Maybe it was a good old fashioned threesome with the Falwells. I thought Jerry died years ago. Is it the son in this story?

  38. 38.

    p.a.

    @Yutsano:

    I wonder if Mr. Granda is shopping his story to the highest bidder. This herring is stinkier than decade old gefilte fish.

    Mayhap it’s already in the National Enquirer secure location?

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    @sukabi:

    Cohen’s 3 clients did not include Falwell.

    Among many things, this is the problem with Cohen. Not only does he lie non-stop, but the reason he’s doing 3 years even with a plea deal is because he didn’t cooperate to the level SDNY expected. I think we have to take any utterance he poops out, even in court, to be suspect at best.

  40. 40.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Ken:

    Help my failing elderly memory. Wasn’t there a report that Cohen had arranged a payoff to a pron star other that Stormy Daniels for one of his clients? I think I recall the “a” word (as in “roe v. wAde”) being involved in that one.

    Shera Bechard, the mistress of former RNC Financial Chairman Elliott Broidy (who is or was one of Michael Cohen’s 3 “clients”) claimed that Broidy coerced her into having an abortion. It’s all out there on Google, if anyone wants the sordid details.

    One of the sordid details is a rumor that Broidy was a front for the actual Impregnator 1.

    [Edited to fix typo, and to thank sukabi for answering before this comment posted.]

  41. 41.

    hells littlest angel

    A detail that shouldn’t be left out of this story is that the $1.8M was used to start up a gay-friendly (not that there’s anything etc.) hostel with an on-premises liquor store.

  43. 43.

    Ohio Mom

    @maya: Allen Sherman!

    Though he had a sad end, his work continues to bring joy. The National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY includes him in their pantheon, and displays a Camp Granada sweatshirt. If they only had reproductions of it in their gift shop, I’d be wearing it right now (our house is drafty).

  44. 44.

    Patricia Kayden

    @schrodingers_cat: She can’t help herself. How else is she supposed to maintain her sweet, sweet access to Trump? Losing her dignity is nothing compared to that sweet access.

  45. 45.

    dmsilev

    @Yutsano:

    Negative ten points for misuse of mixed metaphor, Professor Levenson.

    Does he gain or lose points for leaving off the Oxford comma?

  46. 46.

    A Ghost To Most

    Ain’t it always you know who’s boots
    Scooting up a goose stepping rhythm to a simpler time
    Quickest on the stick when the call of nature hits
    Shuffle shoeing to a pissy Florsheim
    Every slope is slippery with a little something lacy
    Tween your business and your poly wool blend
    The greatest separators of fools from their money
    Party harder than they like to admit

  47. 47.

    Baud

    Who among us hasn’t befriended a pool boy? Or tennis coach? Or pizza delivery guy? I think it’s perfectly normal.

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodingers_cat: I can’t remember who because I was busy cleaning up the chocolate milk I had just spit out. But on one of the morning segments one of the panelists made a 45 second or so defense of MAGA Habs. Saying she was an excellent journalist, had covered Trump for years and had a personal relationship. I was all, “That’s a defense?!”

  49. 49.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @trollhattan: Tx., Frank assailing the puling hypocrite Swaggart, choice, will save that for later. Gotta go move a friend’s car outta long-term parking at airport but was waylaid by the delectable lamentations of richly deserving assholes.

    These fucking people. Never do they disappoint in living down to one’s worst expectations. Thus, proof of concept allus appreciated.

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    Rev Al has RWNJ attack dog Jen Kerns on his show today. Never know why. The kicker is she is now employed by The Hill.

  57. 57.

    Mathguy

    There’s a banner ad above this page on my computer for Blaze TV, with “No liberal ad!!”. Is Google screwing with me?

  60. 60.

    afanasia

    I’m irritated that this young man scored a higher payoff than Ms. Daniels or that very pretty Playboy model. The wage gap is everywhere….

  61. 61.

    Lady raxterinok

    In a fewdays-ago BJ link to a story about a gay-friendly hotel set up by Falwell family and property owned by Falwell III and wife, the author of the story, who has published in several national magazine, was a grad of Liberty U and came out as gay there. The article about him that I found claimed that he was quite homophobic and implied he might not be terribly trustworthy.

    I’m sorry, I don’t remember the author’s name. Maybe someone here remembers the article I’m thinking of.

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    @Yutsano: I’m not particularly dogmatic on that question either. Like you, I generally put it in. I know some people who regard the question as a near-religious issue though.

  66. 66.

    Lady raxterinok

    @Patricia Kayden: IMO it was super easy to get Evangelicals to back Trump. Just promise anti-abortion and anti-homosexual judges!!

    Other Evangelical leaders to consider–Robert Jeffres of First Baptist of Dallas and Rodney Howard Browne, the South African preacher who appeared on the national Pentecostal scene with his ‘laughing ministry in 1989. (A connection between this ministry and the ‘Fall of the Berlin Wall’ in 89 was widely claimed by some!)

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @sigyn:

    It was Rev. Jerry Sr.’s father. Explains a WHOLE lot about the level of abusiveness in that family. It almost made me feel sorry for Jerry Sr. to have been raised by someone that cruel.

  73. 73.

    sigyn

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, hence “grandpa”; I should have been clearer. The second story at my link erased any stirring feelings of pity I had.

    It’s a ‘root and branch’ type of family.

    eta: whenever I am asked what’s the most monstrous thing you ever heard of… And Jerry Sr. admitted it “bordered on cruelty”.

  75. 75.

    Shalimar

    @sukabi: I don’t have a link handy, but someone said a few weeks ago that Cohen had more than 3 clients. Only 3 were relevant to the government’s case against him and the attorney/client privilege claim at issue from all the seized records.

  76. 76.

    JPL

    If a democratic candidate for president had stayed in the Hostel, they would be forced out. Falwell has some explaining to do.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @sigyn:

    People raised by cruel parents usually go one of two ways: they swear to be different than their parents and make an effort to do that, or they double down and become cruel themselves in a desperate attempt to normalize what happened to them.

    It’s sad that Rev. Jerry Sr. decided to take the path of normalizing cruelty and hurting other people the way he had been hurt, but that’s the choice he made.

  81. 81.

    Barry DeCicco

    @Corner Stone: “Among many things, this is the problem with Cohen. Not only does he lie non-stop, but the reason he’s doing 3 years even with a plea deal is because he didn’t cooperate to the level SDNY expected. I think we have to take any utterance he poops out, even in court, to be suspect at best.”

    I have an alternate theory, that he flipped on Trump 100%, but not the Russian mob. The FBI gave him three years for that. His publicly expressed relief was genuine, because it meant that he wouldn’t be whacked.

  82. 82.

    sigyn

    @Mnemosyne: The older I get the more I realized how blessed I was by my good parents. The only adjustment I felt the need for was switching from spanking to no spanking.

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @sigyn:

    Both my dad and my stepmom (who has raised me since I was about 10 since my own mom died when I was 7) were pretty damaged people, but fortunately they both chose to try and do better than their terrible parents did. They still screwed up a lot, but they did their best they could with the tools they had.

  86. 86.

    SRW1

    $1.8 million? Isn’t that the tariff in conservanoble circles if someone gets someone preggers and that problem has to be, ahem, removed?

  89. 89.

    Jay Noble

    @Mathguy: I’ve been seeing the banner ad for about the last week and a sidebar one now and then since then. Hey, if they want towaste their money here . . .

  90. 90.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Emma: However, we at Libertine.com, are more than willing to film the whole thing. Yes, its pretty cliche, but our clients don’t mind., as long as its fresh. And by the way, we would like to make an offer to that pool boy as well. A lot of aging pool boys make a good living after its all over with us…

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