President Donald Trump‘s former personal attorney Michael Cohen said that he had helped former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki Falwell ensure that private photos would not be released in 2015.
Falwell had agreed to take an indefinite leave of absence at the discretion of the executive committee of Liberty University’s Board of Trustees, as the university president earlier this month after a series of broiling allegations and scandals. On Monday, he officially resigned after accusations of a sexual affair by a former Miami hotel pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda, stormed.
Granda claimed that, for years, he had intimate relations with Becki, while Falwell looked on.
“Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda told several news outlets.
Falwell has denied any claims that he had been involved in the affair.
“These were personal photos between a husband and wife,” Cohen told CNN.
Cohen said he negotiated with another lawyer who represented a father and son who had sued Falwell and Granda over a land deal to help block some of the “personal photos between a husband and wife” from being released in 2015.
Cohen reported that a friend of Granda, Jesus Fernandez Jr., had later settled with Falwell.
Cohen said, “Jerry and Becki (were) very upset at the prospect of its (the photos’) potential public release.”
Granda disputed Falwell’s version of events in a statement to the press Tuesday. He also called Falwell a “predator” and accused the former university president of being in possession of a female student’s nude photo.
Falwell has confirmed that he would receive around a $10.5 million severance package because he is leaving the university without being formally accused of or admitting to wrongdoing. The former university president said that he would receive $2.5 million over the next two years – and that he would get the remaining $8 million after the first installments.
