Original subtitles

MAN 1: You ready? MAN 2: Yep. All set.

MAN 1: All right. Ready to roll?

MAN 2: A camera rolling.

GIANCARLO GRANDA: Oh, shit, I don't-- [laughs]

Let me mentally prepare myself

'cause I know my parents are gonna watch this one day.

So, just-- Um...

Look, 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've walked away and just enjoyed my private life.

♪

♪

♪ Tell 'em, pray for me ♪

♪ It was God that brought Dre to me ♪

♪ Even brought the-- Kanye for me ♪

♪ Bless... ♪

GIANCARLO: If you go to the Fontainebleau on a Saturday,

it looks like you're in Vegas.

♪ ...ashamed of the city where he live ♪

♪ Make a-- hate the logo on the Dodger cap ♪

GIANCARLO: And if you don't have the connections,

you're gonna wait two hours in line.

It's a big party scene, everyone's having a good time,

people are drinking, there's cabanas.

People ordering bottle service, spending a lot of money.

The waitresses would get hit on, you know, us guys would get hit on too.

That's why it's a fun job.

♪ Mama, forgive me 'cause I'm tryin' to make a living, hah ♪

♪ Them-- hating 'cause they... ♪

GIANCARLO: My job as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau was very simple.

♪ Me and 'Ye killin' ♪

♪ Something like my Jesus piece... ♪

GIANCARLO: Folding towels, fixing the chairs, umbrellas,

and just interact with the guests.

♪ Throw them suicide doors up ♪

♪ And let the Holy Ghost swing ♪

♪ Something like my Jesus piece... ♪

GIANCARLO: March 2012 was like any other day.

I'm doing the usual, just, uh, changing towels, talking to the guests.

That day, I...

I was flirting with, you know, some girls.

They were about my age.

And then I look over, you know, behind my shoulder,

and I see this woman looking at me.

She was just laying back, sipping on a drink,

and just eyeing me down, just staring at me.

She was actually snapping pictures of me.

She was in her 40s, more than twice my age.

She was attractive.

Yeah, she was a cougar.

And I'm like, "Why are you taking pictures of me?"

And then she tells me,

"Don't waste your time with the younger ones.

They don't know what they're doing."

And at that moment, I knew that she probably wanted something more.

It started intensifying.

She makes a proposition.

She's like, "You wanna go back to my hotel?"

I'm like, "Let's go back. I'm down."

Like, I-- I don't think any 20-year-old would reject this proposition, right?

If an attractive woman tells you to go back to the hotel room,

you're probably gonna take it.

And then she told me, "But one thing, though.

My, uh, my husband wants to watch."

♪

REPORTER 1: Jerry Falwell Jr. is officially out as President of Liberty University.

The evangelical leader resigning from the college his father founded

under a cloud of scandal.

REPORTER 2: His fall from grace was swift and steep.

A one-time Miami pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda,

claiming he had a seven-year affair with Falwell's wife, Becki,

and that Falwell watched when they were intimate.

REPORTER 3: It is the latest in a shocking string of scandals

to hit one of the most influential families

in the evangelical Conservative movement.

♪ Ooh, Lordy, trouble so hard ♪

♪ Ooh, Lordy, trouble so hard ♪

♪ Don't nobody know my troubles but God ♪

♪ Don't nobody know my troubles but God ♪

♪ Ooh, Lordy, trouble so hard ♪

♪ Don't nobody know my troubles but God ♪

♪ Don't nobody know my troubles but God ♪

♪

GIANCARLO: I grew up in, uh, Westchester, Miami,

which is a predominately Cuban, working-class, uh, neighborhood.

LILIA GRANDA: He was a cute, little, blond baby.

Everyone loved him-- Adorable.

He was the typical, annoying little brother.

We have a seven-year difference.

GIANCARLO: My childhood was pretty much normal,

you know, in Miami standards.

MARK EBNER: Giancarlo may seem a little aloof, a little guarded.

That's just him being a product of his upbringing.

He was raised in a conservative Catholic family in Miami.

- Write to me, Jerry Falwell--

MARK: His mom grew up on The Old-Time Gospel Hour,

courtesy of Jerry Falwell Sr.

She was very religious.

She was a true believer.

LILIA: As a child, he was always the social kid.

He made friends everywhere he went.

- I went to a Catholic high school called St. Brendan High School.

LILIA: Once he got into the teen years,

there was a little bit of a switch in him.

He got really into video games.

It was an addiction.

GIANCARLO: Just spent an unhealthy amount of time playing video games.

It became a problem.

My personality just completely transformed.

I started to isolate, withdraw.

- He became introverted, antisocial.

GIANCARLO: My ability to feel comfortable in a social setting was, uh, compromised.

Like, I just-- I didn't wanna be out with friends.

I didn't feel comfortable.

LILIA: It was rough to experience

'cause no one really knew how to handle it.

GIANCARLO: My parents, my sister,

they were very supportive during that time.

It was a dark period for me.

- It was sad and-- and hard for all of us, especially my parents

because they didn't really know how to handle it.

GIANCARLO: After high school, I told myself, "I need to change my life,"

so I started eating healthy, started working out.

But I was still that shy, reserved kid.

I still had insecurities.

I wanted to-- to work and experience life,

and-- and actually, make money and save money.

So I reached out to a friend that worked at the Fontainebleau Hotel.

- That's when he really started coming out of his shell,

dating girls, having a social life.

He was doing good.

He was excited about school, excited about his future.

GIANCARLO: I worked at the Fontainebleau for one year.

I was working full-time and going to school part-time.

There's days where I was making, like, $200 to $500 a day in cash.

It was pretty good for a 20-year-old.

- From that dark time when he was, like, 15

to where he was at now, like, it was just a different kid.

MARK: When he started busting out, that was a whole new world for him.

And he went off the deep end head-first.

♪

GIANCARLO: After my shift, I'm driving home.

I tell my sister what's gonna happen.

- This is a terrible idea.

Like, this is weird.

Who are these people? Where are they from?

Are they just here in Miami just to do sexual escapades?

- She's like, "Oh, this doesn't sound like a good idea."

- There's only so much I could tell him.

Like, once he makes up his mind and is gonna do something,

he's gonna do it.

- I probably should've listened to her.

♪

- That's been our relationship our entire lives.

Like, if you'd just listened to me from the beginning,

your life would be a lot easier.

GIANCARLO: That night, I get a phone call from a blocked private number,

and, uh, it was the woman.

She said, "We rented a hotel room at the Days Inn just around the block."

They didn't wanna do it at the Fontainebleau

'cause their kids were staying there.

♪

LILIA: My brother calls me on his way

so someone knew what he was doing and where he was going.

In case things got weird, someone knew where to go to get him.

GIANCARLO: I walk into the-- to the lobby.

I'm nervous. I'm like, "What the hell am I doing?"

Again, this is a very stupid scenario I got myself into.

And I'm trying to talk myself out of it,

but then, I'm also thinking, "Eh, who cares? I'll just do this."

I was a horny 20-year-old.

Uh, there-- There really is no other explanation other than that.

MARK: This guy was as green as they come.

He never even had a high school girlfriend.

GIANCARLO: She's sitting there on the couch.

I sit down. I'm nervous.

She's like, "Hey, I'm Becki. Take this to-- to calm down."

She told me that,

"The night before, we were at a swingers club called Miami Velvet."

I'm like, "Oh, shit."

"No, that's not our thing, it's too public.

"We want something more private.

"We were looking around for other people, and you were perfect."

She stroked my inner thigh.

She did a very good job at seducing me.

And the Jack Daniels definitely helped.

And she said, "All right, let's just go up to the room."

I'm like, "All right. Shit, let's do it."

♪

It's a small hotel room. There's two beds.

As I walk in, it's just her husband,

he's laying on the bed, jeans are unzipped.

He's having a drink,

kinda giggling to himself 'cause he-- he's excited.

We did small talk, trying to just get comfortable with each other.

I told the husband, I'm like,

"Hey, if you get jealous, or you don't like this

"and you-- you don't want me here,

just let me know and I'll walk out, no problem."

"Oh, no. Don't worry about it. Just go for it.

I'm gonna sit right here, and, uh, you guys do your thing."

We start kissing, we were feeling each other up.

And then she said, "Anything but.

No penetration, no actual sex, just oral sex."

We're kissing, and, you know, we go back to the bed.

Oh, shit, I don't--

Yeah, it's-- Ev-- Ev-- Whenever I think of it,

I just-- I cringe at the thought of it but...

♪

The husband gets up, and I get-- I get a little nervous.

I'm like, "What is he doing behind me?"

Uh, but he goes to the corner of the room.

He took off his jeans and then he just started, uh, jacking off.

MARK: Let's talk about cuck theory.

Ultimately, it's a guy who likes to watch.

"I'm fulfilled on a sexual level

by watching my wife with a Cuban stallion."

GIANCARLO: I kept looking back, and I saw him, like, in the corner.

He was trying to hide.

He didn't want himself being exposed or anything.

He just wanted to observe the situation.

I wish the husband wasn't there.

That would've been a better situation.

That's what I was telling myself at the time.

As a horny 20-year-old,

I'm like, "I'm gonna block this out, I'm gonna have sex with this cougar."

Instantly, like, there was this connection.

She was staring at me.

I could tell that she obviously wanted to do this again.

♪

The next day, we hung out again at the Fontainebleau.

I knew what I was getting myself into at that point.

After we finished,

we actually hung out and we talked.

And they said what their names were, you know, Jerry and Becki.

"Wow, nice to meet you guys."

They said that they help out a lot of young people,

and if I ever need help that they can definitely help me out.

We were talking about politics.

We had, you know, common beliefs.

I-- I was raised Republican.

I remember Becki said, "He's perfect."

It was nice connecting with them

and just humanizing the situation.

It wasn't just these strangers anymore.

After they left Miami,

she gave me a really good review on Tripadvisor.

I didn't have her last name.

I didn't really know who they were,

until I-- I got an email on March 22nd.

And it actually came from Jerry.

It was a picture of us that we took at the Fontainebleau Hotel.

There's a picture with me and Becki,

and then one with Jerry.

He sent the email saying, "Becki wanted me to send this to you."

- Immediately, I was like, "Who?"

- And she's like, "Oh, Jerry Falwell?"

She-- She recognized the name.

She's like, "Isn't that, like, the famous pastor, preacher?"

- Wait a minute. Hold on.

This cannot be the same people that I'm thinking about right now.

- And I'm like, "I-- I honestly don't even know."

So I ended up googling him.

- Becki, would you stand in your Liberty Flames dress?

[crowd cheering]

I think it's very fitting that she's wearing that dress

because I believe she's the hottest first lady

of any college in the country.

[crowd cheering]

GIANCARLO: "Oh, so he's the President of Liberty University."

I didn't know what Liberty University was, never heard of it.

♪ L-U ♪

♪ I can't hear you ♪

♪ L-U ♪

♪ Turn it up, turn it up... ♪

- Liberty University is a one-of-a-kind school

in Lynchburg, Virginia.

It's a nonprofit Christian university,

where both students and faculty practice what they preach.

♪ 154 students, man ♪

♪ How could they manage? ♪

♪ Now, we the biggest Christian university on the planet... ♪

GIANCARLO: I knew immediately that they were successful,

and then I started learning that they were not just successful and had money,

but they were powerful and well-connected.

- My father founded Thomas Road Baptist Church in 1956.

It is now located next door to campus.

- Good morning.

And I welcome you to the morning service

at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.

- The church services were broadcast nationally

in the 1970s and '80s.

REPORTER: TV preacher, Dr. Jerry Falwell,

whose doctorate is honorary, not earned,

turned a small Virginia church of 35 into a Christians communications empire.

Falwell preaches to a church of 4,000 each Sunday,

with a TV audience of 20 million.

JERRY FALWELL SR.: I believe these are the last days.

What is the thing that interests God the most?

Getting people ready for his coming,

getting people ready for the sounding of the cross.

- He founded Liberty University in 1971.

REPORTER: A school for 50,000 students,

from kindergarten right through a doctoral program.

- We have what we think is a boot camp here for the Lord,

training soldiers for Christ.

- He founded Moral Majority a few years later.

Moral Majority was a coalition that shared pro-life and pro-family values.

- One man for one woman for one lifetime.

It's called the traditional family.

It's worked for 6,000 years.

- Many credited Moral Majority

with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

GIANCARLO: I told Jerry, "I found out more about your dad.

"I read about what he would say,

blaming, uh, 9/11 on homosexuals."

- The abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians,

all of them,

you helped this happen.

- "Honestly, if you wanna know my opinion, I think your dad was a piece of shit."

He's like, "Eh, you know, yeah, a lot of people think that.

But I'm completely different. I'm not like my dad."

He said, "I'm a business guy, and I see the future,"

and I liked that.

MARK: The Falwells are the Southern Gatsbys.

They're wealthy and they're sloppy as fuck.

- How old was Becki when you guys met?

Uh, some of our freshmen don't know this story.

- No, we don't need to get on that story.

JERRY JR.: She was 13 and I was 18 when I met her.

BECKI: All right, let's not get, um-- So, Candace. [laughs]

Hey, girls, let's take a look at the ring on Candace's finger, by the way.

- I think it's 13 carats,

the same age that you were, Becki, when you guys met.

[crowd cheering]

MEGAN K. STACK: Becki grew up in North Carolina.

They were a religious family.

She told me that her father was in timber.

I later found out her father was in trailer parks,

and went to prison for tax evasion.

- Becki, tell 'em how you proposed to me.

- Falwell Jr. went to Liberty University with Becki's older sister.

- Yeah, I proposed to Jerry.

He had finished law school, and he had taken the bar exam.

MEGAN: She dropped out of Liberty to support Jerry,

who was down at the University of Virginia.

- And I said, "Can we get married now?"

And he said, "Yes."

MEGAN: Becki said to me, with sort of embarrassment,

"Oh, we had the most boring wedding of anybody ever.

There was no drinking alcohol. There was no dancing. It was just awful."

MARK: And they popped out three kids,

Trey, Wesley, and Caroline.

MEGAN: These are two people

who have, for a long time, been and remain very much in love.

I don't see any daylight between them.

They're just extremely intertwined, psychologically and emotionally.

It's very unusual to come across a married couple like that.

JERRY JR.: My father, he would tell his congregation,

"Don't get mad when people tell lies about you,

just be glad they don't know the truth." So.

[audience laughing]

MEGAN: In some ways, Jerry was a black sheep.

A son who was not able to access the kind of religious fervor

that defined his father and that was going to define his family.

- Jerry Jr. had not been a conventional evangelical.

He believed that his role to support the ministry

would be in business.

MEGAN: He did set out doing real estate law

and not working with his father.

He came back to help get the university out of financial distress.

JERRY JR.: I spent many days negotiating with creditors

and spent many weekends begging and borrowing from donors and lenders

to cover the paychecks that had already been issued

on the Friday before.

DUSTIN WAHL: Falwell Jr. was never a good fit to be in a public-facing role.

It wasn't something that he sought out and asked for.

He inherited it when his father passed away.

MEGAN: He was a hero to Liberty, financially.

It brought Jerry Falwell money. It brought him power.

It gave him the tacit approval of his father,

even after his father's death.

MARK: If you're part of this dynasty,

then you can do whatever the fuck you want,

and that couple did it to the hilt.

[indistinct chatter]

DUSTIN: He was beloved by a lot of students for his quirkiness.

People didn't treat him like he was the spokesperson

for one of the largest Christian and Conservative institutions in the world.

People treated him like he was a cartoon character,

or their crazy uncle.

He realized that that familiarity students felt with him

gave him a lot of power.

[crowd cheering]

LILIA: What my brother did

was with almost like the first family

of, like, the evangelical Christianity Church.

♪

GIANCARLO: Becki calls me,

and she says they got a hotel at the Cheeca Resort in the Keys.

This trip was different

because I wasn't just meeting them and going back home.

I'm actually gonna stay there for the weekend.

I remember driving down to Cheeca,

I'm like, "Wait, we're gonna be in the same room.

Where's Jerry gonna be?"

Uh, so that was-- that was a concern.

The sleeping arrangement was,

I slept on the bed with Becki

and, you know, Jerry slept, uh, next to the bed.

Which, you know, thinking back, it's kind of strange.

It was, I don't know, like 5:00 in the morning,

and I just-- I randomly woke up,

and I look over to the side and Becki's just staring at me.

She has these dark black eyes.

I obviously kept hooking up with her,

but, you know, I'm like, "This is kinda weird."

I'm like-- I was startled by it.

♪

MARK: The dynamic of the relationship outside of the sex,

he liked being around them.

Jerry had the business acumen, he was kind of a goofball.

And Becki Falwell was Giancarlo Granda's warm bathwater.

She held his hand.

- When we're talking, it-- it just felt natural.

We really connected 'cause we would talk about business,

how he was a real estate attorney,

how he developed real estate.

And he would tell me about Liberty University,

how, you know, they were doing over $100 million

in construction projects.

LILIA: You go to Lynchburg, Virginia,

and they own half of the real estate in that town.

He was impressed by them.

- Your ego is being stroked,

and you have Becki on one hand telling him how beautiful he was,

and then you get Jerry telling him,

"You're a bright kid, and I like your thinking."

- After the Cheeca trip, we're talking on the phone every day

and texting every day.

She became my girlfriend.

♪

MARK: Becki was texting him 24/7.

They didn't end a day without at least one hour on the phone.

- She's really making an effort to maintain this relationship.

MEGAN: She said, finally she met somebody,

and she felt that she was having an adventure.

She was having an affair.

She was living this carefree, youthful lifestyle

that she never got to experience when she was young.

GIANCARLO: Becki was the first woman outside of my family,

uh, to say, "I love you."

This is three weeks after meeting 'em.

I'm like...

MARK: He's a kid, he doesn't know what love is.

And this is where it became dangerous down the line.

But in the beginning, it's like, "Whoa, I'm being lavished with attention.

"She wants to do it again?

Which exotic locale are we going to now?"

♪

GIANCARLO: Shortly after the Cheeca trip,

they invited me to New York.

They were gonna go there for business.

And they're like, "Hey, come over

and we can discuss how we can become business partners."

So I meet them, and I stayed the weekend with them.

We stayed at the Gansevoort Hotel on Park Avenue.

We're at dinner at STK,

and I was really worried that someone was gonna discover us

and it's gonna end up in the tabloids.

We're looking through the dessert menu,

and Becki spotted the Carnival Menage A Trois.

And she was like, "Oh, let's get this."

And I-- I remember just feeling awkward

when she ordered the Carnival Menage A Trois.

Like, they're not being subtle about this.

But after dinner, we're talking,

and that's when he said, "You need to make money yourself.

"With my past in real estate, it's a great way to build wealth.

"We'll acquire a property and we'll give you an equity stake in it.

"You just have to manage it.

"And then, you know, when you make your first million,

"we'll all drink champagne together

and life is gonna be great."

Deep down, I always wanted to invest in real estate.

I wanted to get in the game.

I'm like, "This is it!"

- I thought, "Well, maybe they can help him in some way,

"and however weird this thing started,

maybe it'll turn into something good."

They did what they wanted to do,

everyone had their fun,

and now let's go and be... adults.

GIANCARLO: But Jerry quickly wanted to cut to,

"Hey, let's go back to the hotel room and do what we have to do."

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Woman got a big ol' ass and bow legs... ♪

GIANCARLO: Becki, she said, "I have some good news.

We can go all the way this time."

They were both ready for me.

They both felt comfortable with me.

♪ 'Cause we gon' fuck tonight ♪

♪ My dick is getting rock hard... ♪

- They thought it was the right time to actually go forward with it.

♪ Gonna be some fuckin' tonight ♪

♪ Take your panties off ♪

♪ Moving things off to the side... ♪

- And there's no holding back anymore.

♪ Is we gon' fuck tonight ♪

♪ Yeah... ♪

MARK: As the relationship grew and it intensified,

Jerry could sort of move out of that creepy corner that he was in.

GIANCARLO: Jerry, you know,

he went from just, you know, masturbating in the corner

to whenever I would finish,

he would go in, uh, for round two.

MEGAN: They were both kind of looking for these things

that weren't actually available to them within their religious community.

Granda is part of that desire that they shared.

MARK: He was that element of kink

that they needed for them to become closer, if you will.

GIANCARLO: Fast forward, I'm back in Miami looking for properties.

I actually started driving around by myself.

I narrowed it down to Miami Beach.

- What is happening?

What do you know about any of this?

Like, you're 20.

He was like, "I know, like, what I'm doing,

"I know the right people.

Like, we're gonna get this done."

And he relied on the Fernandezes.

♪

GIANCARLO: I reached out to a friend of mine at the time,

Jesus Fernandez Jr.

We called him Tito. That was his nickname.

And his dad, Jesus Fernandez Sr., he was a broker.

LILIA: Him and his dad are like your classic wannabe,

just Miami bullshit artists.

It never really made sense how he was friends with him, honestly.

- I met Giancarlo through Jesus.

Giancarlo and Jesus were kind of like best friends.

I was Jesus' girlfriend, and I was very close with them.

I mean, everybody changed in the five years that I dated Jesus,

they kinda grew up.

But Giancarlo did not strike me as having any street smarts.

Nothing, not even an instinct.

He doesn't really have a hustle spirit.

Jesus was the street-smart hustler of the group.

When I met him, I was absolutely under the impression

that that was a wealthy family.

MARK: Jesus Fernandez Sr. was, at one point,

a big-time real estate investor and a broker.

That family had lived the American Dream.

NICOLE: The houses that they lived in were gorgeous.

Unfortunately, none of them lasted long

before... the sheriff's department came.

MARK: If you look at Jesus Sr.'s rap sheet,

there was a major bankruptcy,

there were allegations of fraud.

The guy didn't even have a broker license anymore.

None of this was disclosed to Giancarlo.

GIANCARLO: By me reaching out to them

and telling, "Hey, you're gonna get a commission from this,"

I felt like I was helping them out.

♪

NICOLE: I was an assistant general manager working at South Beach Hostel.

I mean, in Miami, hostels, you build it and it's gonna be filled.

It's like a fail-safe business.

- Jesus knew the real estate side, I knew the hostel side,

and Giancarlo had the financial backing.

- I called Jerry, I said, "Hey, come down.

I have some guys that are gonna find the best investment property."

NICOLE: Jesus and Giancarlo, his father eventually found a property.

It was Miami Hostel.

The first floor had a restaurant and a liquor store.

GIANCARLO: It was just in the heart of South Beach, which is perfect.

The land itself is very valuable.

LILIA: Once the Fernandezes saw these evangelicals come down here,

they probably saw, you know, just nothing but money signs everywhere.

MARK: This is a guy from Lynchburg trying to do business in Miami.

He didn't know where the fuck he was.

They should've done diligence on these guys.

NICOLE: I understood flying him places,

but I have never heard of anybody

buying some kid, that they met at the Fontainebleau pool,

a four-and-a-half-million-dollar business.

What the fuck? Like, what's going on?

GIANCARLO: Tito and his dad were both very curious,

and they were trying to find out what was going on.

And they kept trying to get answers out of me.

I'm like, "No, they just wanna help me out."

Obviously, that didn't make sense.

That-- That was just-- That was-- You know, it wasn't a good excuse.

I think that they-- they were convinced there was more to it,

and they were right, there was more to it.

- Now you got the Fernandezes working Giancarlo,

because they're smelling money, real money.

The long con had already started.

Who knew what a buddy fucker Jesus Fernandez turned out to be, right?

LILIA: It was a few months for the deal to actually close.

Throughout this process,

my brother and Tito, their friendship started fracturing a bit.

GIANCARLO: The Fernandezes received their commission

on the sale of the property,

and we didn't really talk much after that.

It was just like, all right, the deal closed,

and then they kind of just vanished.

LILIA: Between the time that he met the Falwells

to when they closed on that property was less than a year.

- About 11 months after meeting them,

we're closing on a 4.65-million-dollar commercial property.

It just felt like I was living in a movie.

It just didn't feel real.

I'm like, "Why am I here? Why am I a part of this?"

LILIA: Imagine the first property you own

is a four-and-a-half-million-dollar property.

GIANCARLO: I saw it as a big opportunity to learn,

to grow within business.

It was tough to turn down.

- Okay, so how did the deal break down?

Who was the principal in name?

It wasn't Jerry.

He didn't want his name anywhere near that deal

with a 20-year-old pool boy,

so he put it in Becki's name.

- At this point, my dreams were coming true.

I can see how I can make that first million.

- How do you keep Giancarlo on a leash?

Go into business with him.

And Jerry was looking at keeping his wife happy at that point.

Where she was happiest

was when Giancarlo Granda was balls-deep inside of her.

- So from March 2012 till about, like, June, June, July,

you know, we had this sexual component with the relationship.

I broke it off.

I told Becki, I'm like, "We can't have sex anymore

"'cause I found a girl my age.

I wanna date her, I like her a lot. We obviously can't be doing this."

She didn't take it very well.

Becki cried. She made me feel guilty for it.

"Oh, you replaced me for someone younger."

She would tell me, "God put us together."

I'm like, "I need to live my own life. I need to find someone my age."

And then Jerry said, "Well, she doesn't have to know.

We won't tell her."

And I said, "No, I'm sorry, I just-- I can't.

I-- I don't feel comfortable doing it."

What I did agree to, and it's not-- it's not right,

I continued the emotional connection.

I kept texting her, I kept talking to her every day.

I felt like I was living a double life.

Becki, she would call me every day, she would text me every day.

If I didn't respond to her right away, she would call me crying.

If I didn't respond for a couple days, then Jerry would call me.

He was disappointed.

He'd say, "Hey, what's going on? Like, she loves you so much.

"Why are you trying to break away? She's been so nice to you.

"And we're going to bat for you for this property.

Why-- why break up now?"

Things started slowly morphing into, "Oh, this is just sex and friendship,"

to "Now we're gonna control you."

LILIA: Imagine how sick and twisted that is.

Like, you're middle-aged people calling him, making him feel bad

because he's not texting your wife?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

- So I had two options:

I could just walk away and never talk to 'em again

and lose out on this multi-million-dollar, uh, commercial property,

or just trust them and see what happens.

MARK: These are predators.

Becki, she was addicted to the idea of being in love with this kid,

and she was not gonna let go.

♪

GIANCARLO: One day, Becki texted me,

"I was watching some video clips on my phone... Wow."

At that moment, that just, like, set off an alarm.

And that was the first time that I realized,

"Oh, they were recording everything."

I felt like it was a subtle hint as to,

you know, "We got the goods on you too. Like, don't forget that."

MARK: Jerry Falwell Jr., at the time,

was everything that Giancarlo wanted to be.

Giancarlo wanted all of this and they knew it.

So they were using it as a method of control.

"Hey, you know, have fun with your little girlfriend,

but we own your ass."

♪

- You're fired.

♪ Money, money, money, money ♪

GIANCARLO: September 2012,

Becki gives me a call saying, "Hey, do you wanna meet Donald Trump?"

'Cause at the time, he wasn't who he is today.

He wasn't running for president. He was just the star on The Apprentice.

They knew that I liked Donald Trump,

that I read his book, The Art of the Deal.

LILIA: My brother loved business

and thought Donald Trump was great, and so he was like--

- Yeah, absolutely!

MARK: They were bringing him into a world

that he couldn't even imagine.

"Real estate, politics, my future, everything is here."

He had never in his life imagined

being able to be allowed entrée into that world.

GIANCARLO: I paid for the ticket from Miami to Lynchburg,

then they put me at a hotel.

But after a day, they're like, "Hey, you don't need to stay there actually.

Just come stay with us at our house."

It was the first time that I met their kids.

I don't think they suspected anything at the moment.

Jerry and Becki did tell the kids they were helping me out,

that they wanna give me the opportunity to rise within business.

Jerry was the leader of this Christian university,

so they're around young adults.

It's actually pretty reasonable.

No one really asked why I was around.

I just kind of blended right in.

I was kind of expecting

this weird Bible college in the middle of nowhere,

but Liberty University is one of the nicest campuses I've seen.

Jerry was very proud,

and he mentioned that the endowment was about two billion dollars.

Coming from Miami where you have people from all parts of the world,

it's a melting pot,

but what I did notice at Liberty, there weren't many Black students.

It was mostly white evangelicals.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Today, I want to say to the people of America

and the nations of the world,

we are not about to turn around.

We are on the move now.

Yes, we are on the move, and no wave of racism can stop us.

[crowd clamoring]

- March 1965 is a big turning point for many white evangelical pastors

to understand that the world was changing.

They would have to consider

what side of that world that they wanted to be on.

Would they be on the side of the Civil Rights Movement,

or would they be on the side of white supremacy?

And Jerry Falwell Sr. made a choice.

JERRY SR.: I remember preaching a sermon justifying the segregationist position.

One can make the Bible say almost anything he wants to make it say.

- Our God is marching on.

Glory hallelujah!

Glory hallelujah!

Glory hallelujah!

- Jerry Falwell Sr. says that ministers should not be involved in the political,

they should only be involved in preaching the Gospel of Jesus.

But later on, his game had changed.

REPORTER: School districts began desegregating today

under Supreme Court orders.

- Jerry Falwell Sr. was not happy

about the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

- But as the public schools reopen,

a number of new private schools, all white, sprang into existence.

- He started his own segregation academy there

in conjunction with the Thomas Road Baptist Church.

- These segregation academies were not called segregation academies.

They had Christian names.

But they were built to make sure

that white children did not have to be in contact with African American children.

- The IRS wants to revoke the tax exemptions for private schools

which discriminate racially in their admissions policies.

MATTHEW SUTTON: In the 1970s, the IRS determines

that if you were a charitable institution by definition,

so it means you get tax exemption,

you cannot practice segregation.

And one of the things they'd then target are these Christian-segregated academies.

So this really wakes up Falwell and a number of other ministers,

and they realize that if they don't have allies in the Federal Government,

they're not gonna be able to keep doing what they're trying to do.

JERRY JR.: I preached a few years ago

that Christians shouldn't be involved in politics,

but I think we have every right to speak.

We're citizens too.

- He actually at least had the integrity to acknowledge that he was a hypocrite.

- Jerry Falwell Sr.'s idea about ministers being involved in politics

was to support the status quo of white supremacy.

- Falwell is really at the ground level doing this through his school,

through his academy in Lynchburg, Virginia.

♪

- We're waiting in this back area.

I'm with Becki and the kids.

And then Trump and Jerry walk in.

Immediately, Trump just sucked up the energy of the room.

Jerry says, "I wanna introduce you to our business partner in-- in Florida.

He-- He used to work at the Fontainebleau."

And then he signed my book, and he wrote, you know, "Giancarlo, work hard!"

And it was-- it was a cool moment.

And it just reinforced all the things that Becki was telling me,

that I'm very lucky to be mentored by Jerry.

I mean, he's clearly well-connected.

He's in a powerful position, there's a lot of influence.

If I learn from him, look what I can potentially become.

I felt special.

Like I was part of this exclusive club, part of their inner circle.

It was intoxicating.

Michael Cohen was present.

I didn't know who he was,

I just saw him as, uh, like, "Oh, his attorney or business associate."

Michael Cohen kinda leaned over, he's like, "Who is that guy?"

Like, he just didn't really get it.

He's like, "What? I mean, this guy's, you know, 21 years old."

At that moment, I'm like, "Does he know?"

Like, it was just this moment like, "Why-- Why did he ask him?

Why did he react that way?"

- He was paid, you know, to dig up dirt on people

and to be able to control them with that dirt.

- At that moment, he registered that there may be something here.

[indistinct chatter]

Liberty University has this big arena.

[crowd cheering]

I walk in.

I'm not sure how many people are seated there,

I don't know what the capacity is, but thousands.

Thousands of students.

We're on the big screen and people were clapping for us

as we were walking to the front row.

We are the sole focus of the show.

I-- I just couldn't believe it.

Trump was speaking at this thing they called the Convocation.

I didn't know what Convocation was.

♪

DUSTIN: Convocation is sort of like a big chapel.

It's three times a week.

If you live on campus, you are required to be there.

- You have no right to be ordinary.

DUSTIN: The person that comes up to speak,

they get the blessing of having a stage that they can stand on

that has spiritual legitimacy.

So it's especially nefarious when that stage is abused.

And that stage is abused all the time.

WOMAN: Good morning, Liberty University.

Are you excited to be here?

- Mr. Trump single-handedly forced President Obama

to release his birth certificate.

[crowd cheering]

I would like to ask Donald Trump to join me at the podium.

[crowd cheering]

GIANCARLO: Donald Trump gave a speech.

- You know, your founder, Jerry Falwell, was a great man.

So impressive, so smart, so tough when you had to be tough.

GIANCARLO: When I'm sitting there in the front row,

I started to think to myself,

"Everything about Liberty University and the Falwells is all about power,

and making sure that people are aware of this power."

- Don't let people take advantage-- This goes for a country too, by the way.

Don't let people take advantage.

Get even.

[crowd cheering]

GIANCARLO: And then I find out

that the students aren't even allowed to dance,

or drink alcohol, or hold hands or hug, or anything.

- The Liberty Way is this set of rules

that students have to live by.

Dress modestly.

You cannot attend a dance.

You're not allowed to drink

And it controlled the sexual conduct of the students.

And you agree that, you know, "The school can fine me

if I violate one of these rules."

For a small violation like swearing,

you're probably just gonna end up getting a few points put on your record.

For something more serious, like possession of alcohol,

right away, you could get a $300 fine,

which is the same potential fine for committing a felony, like rape.

- They run a Christian university, but this is what they're doing.

They're staying at the Fontainebleau and partying and drinking.

MARK: This is Jerry Falwell Jr.,

this is Becki Falwell,

and this is their ultimate hypocrisy.

Becki and Jerry as a team,

they didn't play by anyone's rules but their own.

GIANCARLO: I started feeling guilty.

The students, they have no idea what's really going on behind the scenes.

They all think that the Falwells are this godly, perfect family.

I just felt very awkward.

- You know, it's not too late to get back in the presidential race, is it?

I don't know.

[crowd cheering]

- Jerry and his family have absolute control,

and no one is going to stand up to them 'cause they're gonna get crushed.

- My brother was so into this world,

he was, like, high off the power and the money,

and being around all these powerful people.

He owned this building on Miami Beach.

He was, like, on top of the world.

♪

GIANCARLO: When my ex-girlfriend and I broke up,

Becki pretended like she was sad,

but she was obviously very excited

because it meant that we were gonna go back

to the original nature of the relationship.

You know, we just started up again as we did on day one.

A part of me felt like I-- I owed them this.

They had this weird psychological hold over me

with these constant guilt trips and me being financially tied to them.

I can't really explain it, but I felt like I had to.

♪

I get invited to Trey's wedding.

LILIA: There's like the first level of weirdness

about the whole thing,

and then what really took my weird feelings to the next level

is when he started being friendly with the kids.

GIANCARLO: The Falwells stayed at the Presidential Suite.

- Why the fuck are you going to that wedding?

I mean, why are you invited to that?

- And I would just sneak away, go to the room, and we would have sex.

MARK: The idea of getting caught

was part of their sexual kink.

Why else would you be so reckless?

MEGAN: There was a sense that if they just went along

and got the university rich,

that people would leave them alone

and that they could pursue this very racy private life.

GIANCARLO: Becki would refer to Trey

and their other son, Wesley, and their daughter as my siblings.

If you look at it, it's a good cover story.

They were always gonna be able to say,

"Yeah, you know what? We saw him as a son

and we were just trying to help him out."

Christians are known to reach out to people that are vulnerable

and going through a tough time, and lifting them up.

The kids saw it as something admirable.

They had no idea

that their dad liked to watch his wife get fucked in a room by a younger guy.

LILIA: Involving your kids with this person

that you had this sexual relationship with,

they're the adults in the room, they run a university, they're parents.

He was at the age of, like, I think, one of their sons.

The whole thing was just, like, icky.

GIANCARLO: With family vacations, whenever they went down to Miami,

Becki would just sneak away and, you know, have sex with me.

There was a running joke amongst the kids and everyone,

they're always like, "Where's Becki?"

She was always-- She was always missing.

They actually made a shirt that said, "Where's Becki?"

It was a little inside joke amongst everyone.

She was hanging out with me.

Jerry, his job was to distract the kids.

"All right, let's go to the beach.

Let's go to the pool. Let's go get drinks. Let's go explore."

And then Becki and I would just hang out in the hotel.

As long as we recorded it, he was okay with it.

A lot of pressure came from Jerry.

Basically, her job was to seduce me and successfully have sex with me.

And if she wasn't able to do that, Jerry would get upset.

The lies just started building up.

I had to lie to my girlfriends,

I had to lie to my family.

It was exhausting.

If you look at the Falwells, they were living their best life.

They were professionals at living a double life.

Over the years, it just-- it weighed on me.

When you're forced to hold this secret and lie to everyone,

you start to become a liar.

And I didn't like who I was becoming.

At a certain point, you just-- you just don't wanna do it anymore.

MARK: And then all of a sudden,

the Fernandez duo, father and son, started making claims what they would do.

And they started making threats,

and they started being a pain in the ass.

- I think that visions of grandeur and money,

that was in everybody's head.

Everything kind of turned sour.

Greed fucks everybody up.

GIANCARLO: I hadn't heard from the Fernandezes

since the deal closed,

then all of a sudden, in fall, 2014,

I received a letter from an attorney who was representing them.

And it had to do with breach of contract.

They were claiming that they were promised 50% of my equity stake,

but they weren't promised an equity stake.

- To the best of my understanding,

the agreement was a real estate commission.

I've never heard of them speaking about being 50-50 in the property.

GIANCARLO: I give him a call.

- Hello, Mr. Giancarlo Granda.

- Just being theatrical.

- As a devout Christian, I'm heartbroken

about the things that my client is telling me about the Falwells.

GIANCARLO: He referenced compromising images,

photos of me and Becki.

Obviously, I'm like, "Oh, my God, everyone's gonna find out.

"My family's gonna find out.

"This is all gonna crumble.

"Oh, my God, what-- what do they have?

"Did they have the videos of me and Becki?

Do they have that? I didn't-- I didn't really know."

It does not feel good when you know

that this secret part of your life is about to be exposed.

- He was definitely nervous.

I think this also started his becoming a little paranoid.

Who do you trust? Who you can't trust?

GIANCARLO: I was so frustrated

at the fact that I was being betrayed by someone who I saw as a friend.

It's just disgusting

to threaten to reveal our private lives.

You know, later, I found out that his dad owed a lot of money. [chuckles]

He owed like, I don't know, like, 34 million dollars or something like that.

So the $15,000 that they got from commission wasn't gonna put a dent.

NICOLE: Jesus and his father are always looking for the next hustle,

and that was Jerry Falwell Jr.

- I just told him, "You're gonna be hearing from my attorney."

Called Jerry immediately after.

I said, "It seems like we're being blackmailed here."

♪

There's a mediation.

Jerry flies down to Miami.

- The Falwell attorneys actually made an offer to the Fernandezes.

But you see, greed doesn't play that game.

GIANCARLO: The reason why it was a shakedown

and not just a normal legal dispute

is because they were claiming for half of my equity stake

and anything that I made.

And we offered it to 'em, and they declined.

- They figured they could get a hell of a lot more.

- They didn't really want half of the equity stake, they wanted millions.

He disguised this shakedown as a lawsuit.

It was just them saying,

"We know what happened with this relationship.

"Not only do we know, but we have compromising material.

We have photographs."

GIANCARLO: "If you don't pay us, then it's gonna become public."

At this meeting, they showed the images,

and it was the images that she shared with me.

LILIA: Pictures? [chuckles] Okay.

Like, pictures of you guys doing stuff?

- Yeah.

- Well, you're fucked.

- I told Jerry, I'm like, "Like, I didn't give it to them.

They just somehow obtained them."

And Jerry's like, "Look, I trust you. Don't even worry about it.

I know we're all on the same team here."

I tell him, like, "We need to call the FBI.

"We shouldn't pay them, you know, a penny."

But it seemed like Jerry, he never really wanted to testify under oath.

He has a lot to hide.

MARK: He knew the volatility in those photos,

and he knew that they had something that could literally destroy him.

- I told Jerry, I'm like, "What did you tell your attorneys?"

And he's like, "Well, I told them that you had a crush on Becki,

and you somehow got, you know, the images, and then your friends got it somehow."

I'm like, "Uh, that's not what happened."

And at that point, I'm like, "Is this-- Am I being represented here?

"Like, are they looking out for my best interests

at this point for this lawsuit?"

I mean, I was concerned because, obviously, Jerry has influence.

He has power. He has connections.

I just saw how easy it was for them to just spin this to favor the Falwells.

At that point, I'm like, "I'm screwed."

- Once the threat of the Fernandezes started getting real,

things might come out.

He, I think, thought, "Well, let me tell my parents

before they find out any other way."

- "I don't want any secrets. This is what happened. It was stupid.

"But we are business partners, and that's it.

It was stupid, I was young, but I'm moving on."

Obviously, my parents were upset.

My mom was blown away by that.

She was shocked.

You know, she really thought that they were an amazing family

for helping me out.

It broke her heart.

♪

Becki called me.

I told her I was stressed out.

I want no part of this.

I'm-- I want out.

"Oh, the lawsuit? Don't even worry about it.

"We called our friend, Michael Cohen,

"and he's gonna take care of those guys that are suing us.

It's never even gonna go public. We're in good hands."

Whenever you need something to go away or get settled,

or any sort of legal dispute to be, uh, resolved,

then, uh, people within Trump's orbit, they would reach out to Michael Cohen.

After Michael Cohen intervened,

it seemed like our problems just went away.

The Fernandezes and the lawsuit just vanished, you know?

And it did for a while, at least.

- It's true that Michael Cohen helped them out with the legal dispute.

But he didn't just help 'em out, now he owns the compromising material.

MARK: This story isn't quite over

in terms of Michael Cohen and what his business was

and may still be with the Falwells.

Who owns who in this situation?

♪

GIANCARLO: I'm at the hostel doing work.

I get a phone call from Jerry and Becki,

and they told me they were in Miami.

And they said, "Hey, come over to the Loews,

we gotta talk about something serious."

And I'm like, "Oh, shit, what's going on?"

So the first thing that Jerry says--

He offered me 1.1 million dollars for my equity stake

in the property in South Beach.

And then he also said he owns a hotel in-- in Lynchburg,

it's La Quinta.

And they-- they offered me an equity stake just equivalent of $50,000 a year.

He said, "Do you want it?" And I said, "Yeah."

I accepted immediately right there on the spot.

But he's like, "We're gonna have to wait till we settle this lawsuit

because there's this legal claim on us."

It's like kind of, like, having a lien.

I was essentially handcuffed to this property.

- I think at this point, he was very much over the bullshit of it all.

GIANCARLO: Over the years, Jerry would always tell me,

"Wouldn't it be nice if you just come work over at Liberty?"

He just really wanted me in that world.

I asked, "Why are you being so generous with this proposition? What's going on?"

Then he told me, he's like, "Michael Cohen approached me,

"and Donald Trump's gonna run for president,

and they want my endorsement."

I didn't take it seriously. I'm like, "You can't be serious, right?"

Like, it's probably for ratings.

There's no way he's actually running.

He's like, "No, no. He really wants to run.

And, uh, we believe that he can actually win."

If Jerry was gonna get more involved with politicians,

just like how his dad did,

he had to ensure that all loose ends were tied.

MATTHEW: In the 1970s,

when the evangelicals and Jerry Falwell became engaged in politics,

they realized that the civil rights issue was wrong,

like, they-- they were on the wrong side of that one.

And so they begin to shift towards other issues.

- There was a kind of a period of almost market testing

to see which issues would grab these evangelical voters.

MATTHEW: They go after the feminist movement.

JERRY SR.: God didn't make women for NFL football or combat,

or a lot of other things.

I don't believe we should demean womanhood by saying that men and women are the same.

- They also began to go after pornography.

JERRY SR.: Until once again the pornographers are looked on

as the sleazy merchants of garbage as they once were,

and in fact, still are, we haven't won.

- They go after the gay rights movement.

- The scriptures are very clear that homosexuality is moral perversion.

And that's in violation of everything that the Word of God teaches.

- In a nation that's becoming ever more diverse,

Falwell is trying to roll back any progressive change

that's gonna happen.

- In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today legalized abortions.

The majority, in cases from Texas and Georgia said

that the decision to end a pregnancy during the first three months

belongs to the woman and her doctor, not the government.

- Abortion was considered a Catholic issue by evangelicals in the 1970s.

- Evangelicals really felt like abortion was a personal decision

that could be made with a minister and a doctor.

What they don't want is the state telling people what to do.

RANDALL: It wasn't until the '78 midterm elections,

abortion finally begins to appear on the radar screen

of American evangelicals.

- Abortion could be the most volatile, single, political issue in the country today,

and the right-to-lifers, the most powerful, single issue block.

RANDALL: Several conservative activists, pro-lifers, Roman Catholics,

target four senate races.

REPORTER: Right-to-lifers passed out 300,000 leaflets

the weekend before the election.

RANDALL: Two days later,

all four Democratic nominees who were highly favored

lost to anti-abortion Republicans.

At that point, Falwell realized

they had an issue that would work for them politically.

- Jerry Falwell Sr. does not preach his first sermon against abortion

until five years after Roe v. Wade.

JERRY SR.: Abortion is a moral issue.

It is a human rights issue.

An issue that concerns the human rights of unborn babies,

who, by the hundreds of thousands, are being murdered.

ANTHEA: Abortion becomes the number-one wedge issue

that they can all agree on, and all get in line behind.

Jerry Falwell Sr. saw that as a way

to put himself in the forefront of the culture wars of the day.

It's much easier to say you don't want abortion

than to say you don't want a little Black child on the school bus

with your little white girl.

And this becomes a very lucrative business proposition.

- I want every one of you to leave here this morning

without a penny, a nickel, a dime, or a quarter.

No change left.

This is the cash receipts department.

I'm guessing, today, they will probably do $200,000 here.

- $200,000 a day?

REPORTER: At its peak,

Falwell's ministry brought in nearly 100 million dollars a year.

- This is the country God has raised up for the purpose of world evangelization.

ANNOUNCER: Jerry Falwell,

a Lynchburg, Virginia, preacher who runs Moral Majority,

a new political machine that's anti-abortion,

anti-ERA, anti-gay rights,

and for, what he calls, a "Moral America."

- All the moral issues that count today are in the political arena.

There's no way to fight these battles except in that arena.

REPORTER: Moral Majority claims 47 state organizations

and a network of 72,000 preachers,

combining to form, what some call, a Christian political machine.

MATTHEW: They want to use political power

to help elect a president who can appoint judges

to reverse the Court's decision on abortion.

- We're gonna make it impossible for a fellow to run for dog catcher

if he's pro-abortion.

MATTHEW: Liberty University is going to be the essential stop

for political candidates,

especially Republican Candidates,

especially Conservative Republican Candidates,

for getting out your message

and for substantiating what you wanted to do with the country.

ANNOUNCER: This is an NBC News Special Report.

- Donald Trump is lining up, what could be, key endorsements.

REPORTER: For Trump, a major evangelical endorsement,

Jerry Falwell Jr.

Falwell could give Trump the credibility he needs.

- Can we just put our hands together for our great president?

President Falwell, everybody. Come on.

[crowd cheering]

- Matthew 7:16 tells us that by their fruits, you shall know them.

In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others

as Jesus taught in the great commandment.

Please welcome back to Liberty University, Mr. Donald Trump.

[crowd applauding]

- Wow.

It's an honor to be here.

I wrote The Art of the Deal,

I wrote many bestsellers.

I always say, a deep, deep second to the Bible.

The Bible is the best. The Bible.

GIANCARLO: Jerry was entrenched in, now, the political world

in campaigning for Donald Trump.

- Evangelicals are tired of being betrayed.

And I think the song from 1971 by The Who,

Won't Get Fooled Again, is very pertinent in this situation.

And I think that's how a lot of evangelicals feel.

We don't wanna get fooled again.

DONALD: Jerry Falwell Jr. was so helpful. He was so helpful.

You know, I'm leading with the evangelicals.

I'm a good Christian.

- The majority of evangelicals believe

that Donald Trump is best equipped to save the country.

DUSTIN: He was one of the very first Christian leaders

who made it possible for other Christian leaders

to get on board

and get their congregations on board with the Trump campaign.

- The evangelicals, they're with me

'cause they know one thing about me, I'm not a liar.

- Well, you just heard it from Donald Trump.

Christians love him.

GIANCARLO: If Trump didn't get into real estate development,

he could've been an evangelical preacher.

- There's 15 devils.

GIANCARLO: And he's a character.

All these pastors, they're all characters,

they're putting on a show.

- Everybody wants to talk about my hair.

- Maybe they don't like my hair, which is real, by the way.

Look at that sucker.

[audience laughing]

RANDALL: You can make a case that Donald Trump

is very much in the tradition of the televangelist.

He was an evangelist for capitalism.

- Many of you would need to anoint your billfold with this oil

for a financial blessing.

DONALD: Trump Steaks are by far the best tasting,

most flavorful beef you've ever had.

RANDALL: And so, Donald Trump emerged as the champion for the religious right,

much like Reagan did in 1980.

RONALD REAGAN: I was asked once what book I would choose

if I were shipwrecked on an island.

The Bible.

RANDALL: What this is, is politics.

Politics in the pulpit.

REPORTER: Few concern themselves

with the delicate balance between church and state.

JERRY SR.: Mr. Reagan's enemies are my enemies,

and they're yours too.

- Donald Trump is the only candidate who cannot be bought.

- I am the law and order candidate.

- You wanted law and order in this town,

you've got it.

- All of us are sinners. All of us are redeemable.

- Falwell stood by his side

and continued to argue that Christians should support him.

JERRY JR.: Five years from now,

when the Supreme Court is stacked

with people who will rip our Constitution to shreds,

get rid of the Second Amendment,

nobody's gonna be thinking about what Donald Trump said

on a videotape in 2005.

ANTHEA: Evangelicals didn't care about Donald Trump not being Christian.

They were willing to take a man who had been married three times

and had five children from three different mothers,

just like they didn't care that Ronald Reagan wasn't evangelical.

RANDALL: Here you have Jimmy Carter,

a born again, Southern Baptist, progressive evangelical.

And evangelicals, they turned dramatically against him

and then settled, improbably,

on a divorced and remarried, former Hollywood actor,

who, as Governor of California in 1967,

signed into law the most liberal abortion bill in the country.

- When you interrupt a pregnancy, you are taking a human life.

- As you know, I'm pro-life.

INTERVIEWER: Should the woman be punished

for having an abortion?

- There has to be some form of punishment.

INTERVIEWER: For the woman? - Yeah.

- Moral Majority founder, the Reverend Jerry Falwell

is quoted as saying,

he expects a reshaped Supreme Court by President Reagan

would outlaw most abortions.

- Do you wanna see the Court overturn Roe v. Wade?

- Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on,

that's really what's going to be-- That will happen.

- Evangelicals, all they wanted to do was win,

and they were willing to win with anyone that they possibly could.

BOTH: We will make America great again.

- In 1984, my father stood at this convention

and offered the opening prayer

before our party's candidate, Ronald Reagan.

- We pray for our beloved president.

Upon a man that many of us believe,

indeed, to be our greatest president since Lincoln.

[crowd cheering]

- Ronald Reagan went on to accept the nomination

and win in a landslide.

A little over 30 years later,

I stand here with the sincerest prayer

that history is about to repeat itself with the election of Donald J. Trump.

[crowd cheering]

GIANCARLO: Just about four days before the Republican National Convention,

I received a text message from Jerry.

He said that "You have equity in the company,

you've worked really hard in maximizing the value of this company."

No matter what happens,

whether he buys it out or we sell the property,

that he would ensure that I get no less than $600,000.

I was making it clear that this legal dispute

was, you know, taking a toll on my mental health.

I just wasn't feeling well. I wanted out.

He probably wanted a clean cut from everything too.

LILIA: This was just another form of trapping my brother in,

giving him a reason to, you know, stay close.

Now there was this whole new dynamic.

Jerry Falwell was getting himself involved with the future president of this country,

so he needed to make sure that his circle was tight,

and that no one was gonna be out there saying anything crazy about them.

ANNOUNCER: Fox News decision desk has called

Pennsylvania for Donald Trump.

This means that Donald Trump will be

the 45th president of the United States.

ANTHEA: Evangelicals have played a role

in electing every Republican president since Ronald Reagan.

NARRATOR: The numbers were overwhelming.

81% of self-identified white, born again, or evangelical Christians

ultimately voted for Trump.

It was an evangelical turnout for Trump

that exceeded George W. Bush in 2004,

John McCain in 2008,

and Mitt Romney in 2012.

MARK: Much like his father before him,

Jerry Falwell Jr. is now a kingmaker.

DUSTIN: After Trump was inaugurated as president,

Falwell felt invincible.

And he was increasingly weaponizing Liberty University,

and making it into an arm of the Trump Administration.

- I call Liberty the Fox News Network of the academic world.

- Why is it that the left mocks God?

- Welcome to the United States of America,

where illegal aliens have more rights

than American citizens.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Enough. Enough of the PC garbage.

Enough of the never-ending movement of the woke.

- Gun owners know that the only truly free people that have ever lived

have been armed people.

- President Jerry Falwell, I'm inspired by the work you're doing.

GIANCARLO: You're forcing them to attend every single speech,

and you're repeating the same rhetoric.

To me, that's-- that's kind of like indoctrination.

- Praise Jesus. - Yes.

- Jerry and I have gotten to be friends over the last year,

and I can tell you, my respect for him is boundless.

- It's so refreshing to come to a university

where people care about their country,

and-- and it's okay to say, "Merry Christmas."

JERRY JR.: John Kelly, Rex Tillerson,

lots of deep state people, really run the government.

- That issue of the Confederate flag was not about hate.

- As Christians, we should be unbelievably concerned

that the left, first and foremost, they wanna turn government into God.

DUSTIN: Jerry and Charlie Kirk founded the Falkirk Center.

It operates as Liberty's think tank.

But they don't do actual research.

There's no academic product that comes from the Falkirk Center.

It's just like a big Trump troll farm.

CHARLIE KIRK: The launch of this center is answering the important questions:

Was Jesus Christ a socialist?

MARK: Jerry had the board under his thumb.

And as soon as someone from the board spoke up,

boom.

REPORTER: New this morning,

a Liberty University board member has resigned

after publicly criticizing the school's president.

DUSTIN: Mark DeMoss was Jerry Falwell Sr.'s personal chief of staff.

DeMoss speaks to the Washington Post and says,

"Donald Trump's behavior does not reflect the Christian values

that have been taught at Liberty for generations."

That was the last time a board member stood up to challenge Falwell.

GIANCARLO: At this point, I noticed that Jerry's behavior

was becoming more just egotistical and arrogant.

- Can you imagine if the governor was trying

to take away our First Amendment rights?

Second Amendment's just as-- just as sacred.

- The culture at Liberty was affected

by this permissiveness that Falwell Jr. felt.

- I think they're gonna be faced with civil disobedience,

not just by citizens but by police officers.

GIANCARLO: Jerry was offered the position of secretary of education.

They said, "Are you gonna take it?"

And he said,

"My dad told me that it's better to be a kingmaker than a king."

I think he was just, like, drunk on power.

LILIA: And literally drunk,

with his bottle of tequila in his hand at all times.

- Mr. Trump learned about Clyde Fra-- Ooh, sorry.

[crowd laughing]

- He would walk around campus with a water bottle

with half-water, half-tequila.

- A lot of people at Liberty had told me

that Jerry was drinking during the day at the university,

that he was going into meetings smelling of alcohol.

DUSTIN: He literally said--

- I couldn't say half the things I say at any other university either.

[crowd laughing]

DUSTIN: Which was exactly right.

He couldn't, uh, because someone would hold him accountable.

But nobody at Liberty ever did.

- Look at this.

[crowd chanting "Jerry"]

- Jerry texted me a picture

of a former student exposing herself at his private property.

MARK: Just think of that young girl's parents.

They're paying for their kid to go to Liberty,

and this is the receipt they got?

- He was basically untouchable.

♪

They own, like, a 500, 600-acre farm

with a Confederate cemetery on it.

[guns firing] Shooting guns in the backyard.

And then Jerry said, "Well, the good thing is,

"now I know if Becki were to run away with someone,

I know who it is."

He said, "If that were to happen, if she tried to divorce me,

I'd probably have her killed."

At that moment, I really took it as a serious threat.

People have so much influence, they control this town.

If they wanted to make me disappear, they could do it without a trace.

LILIA: I mean, at the end of the day,

Jerry endorsed the guy who ended up becoming president.

So you're like, "I don't wanna fuck with these people.

I don't know what they would do to me to keep their charade going."

You don't know what lengths people are willing to go,

especially when they have so much to lose.

GIANCARLO: As time went on,

his behavior continued to become more radical.

- How the establishment, the deep state-- They look at all of us as deplorables.

But I have the distinct honor of being the first person

that Hillary Clinton called a deplorable.

It was 2015, and it was right after the San Bernardino shootings, and I said--

If some of those people in that community center

had had what I've got in my back pocket right now--

[crowd cheering]

If more good people had concealed carry permits,

then we could end those Muslims

before they-- before they walk in and kill.

[crowd cheering]

- At this point, I didn't really see much common ground with Jerry anymore.

- It just boggles my mind that anybody would be against

what Jesus told his disciples in Luke 22:36.

He told 'em if they had to sell their coat to buy a sword, to do it.

Because he knew danger was coming,

and he wanted them to defend themselves.

[crowd applauding]

GIANCARLO: We have seen the divide happen between Conservatives and Liberals,

and, you know, he was cognizant of that.

He would just always bring it up.

- Virginians, including my family, went to war in the Revolutionary War.

Revolution always bubbles up.

CHILD: Wow, good shot!

- That's what's happened with President Trump.

And so they can-- they can oppress people for a while,

but, eventually, people speak for themselves,

and they've had enough.

GIANCARLO: He would say, "We're so close to a civil war."

- Got it.

- I'm noticing this really obvious, blatant divide within our country.

This extreme violent rhetoric being pushed by Trump

and everyone within his orbit, including Jerry.

I started noticing that there's actual consequences to these words.

It's not just words anymore.

It's leading to violence.

DONALD: People proudly had their Confederate flags.

They're not talking about racism.

They love their flag.

It represents the South. They like the South.

People, right now, like the South.

REPORTER 1: A young white man accused of killing nine people--

REPORTER 2: Roof revealed that he chose the church

because it was a historic African American church.

- Corrupt, power-hungry globalists.

You know what a globalist is, right?

You know what a globalist is.

REPORTER 1: A gunman burst into the Tree of Life Temple

down the tree-lined streets of Squirrel Hill.

11 people killed.

The shooter's social media page stating...

REPORTER 2: Do you think somebody's helping that caravan?

DONALD: I wouldn't-- I don't know who, but I-- I wouldn't be surprised.

A lot of people say, "Yes."

- The shooter had posted about the caravan of migrants

moving up from, uh, Central America, called them invaders.

- That's an invasion. That's not-- That's an invasion.

- And then, you-- you have what happened in Charlottesville.

REPORTER 1: Hundreds of white nationalists,

some wearing what appeared to be uniforms,

carrying weapons, Confederate flags, and Nazi symbols--

[crowd screaming]

A horrifying scene, as this car plowed into a crowd of people.

- Very bad people in that group.

But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.

- Falwell rushed to Donald Trump's defense

as eagerly as ever.

JERRY JR.: One of the reasons I supported him

is because he doesn't say what's politically correct,

he says what's in his heart, what he believes.

And sometimes, that gets him in trouble.

MATTHEW: The seeds of that were in the work of people like Jerry Falwell

generations earlier.

He laid the foundations for-- for this kind of political violence

that we've seen, really, since the 1990s.

- The man charged with killing an abortion doctor

says he has a defense, the Bible!

- Roe vs. Wade has resulted in 10 to 12 million deaths of little children.

MATTHEW: Jerry Falwell has unleashed demons

that he can no longer control.

[explosion blasting] [screaming]

JERRY SR.: Contrary to the wishes of the founders

who wanted neutrality as the policy of the government toward religion,

in fact, the government was becoming hostile,

in my opinion, towards religion.

- This new Christian nationalism

gives rise to things like the Oklahoma City bombing--

REPORTER 1: It looks like part of the building has been blown away.

REPORTER 2: Look at that shot. REPORTER 1: Wow. Holy cow!

REPORTER 2: It is absolutely incredible.

- And nobody's bothering you, right? - Well--

[explosion blasting]

BILL CLINTON: The bombing at Centennial Olympic Park this morning

was an evil act of terror.

REPORTER 1: Eric Rudolph is charged with

the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing.

REPORTER 2: Rudolph next struck at a Sandy Springs, Georgia, abortion clinic,

then a gay bar in Atlanta,

and finally, another abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.

REPORTER 3: Rudolph is believed to belong to the Christian identity

known as a white supremacist sect.

MATTHEW: One thing Jerry Sr. taught us

was that politics, demagoguery, and hysteria is a way to make more money,

give them more influence and more power.

And so, Jerry Jr. recognizes this

and really picks up with what his father had started.

- I did notice that the only time the president calls me to go on TV

is when he's in real trouble.

- I felt guilty. I'm like, "I know the truth about Jerry.

"He's trying to appear as this, like, strongman,

but I know him as just the cuck in the corner of the room."

ARAM ROSTON: I started looking at Jerry Falwell,

in part, because of his endorsement for Trump.

For a lot of people, it was a surprise.

Trump didn't fit the model, necessarily, of the evangelical candidate.

It was a puzzle.

One of the things you routinely do as a-- as a journalist

is you look at people's backgrounds,

and one of those things is litigation.

And that's where I saw, you know, this-- this-- this lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged

that this father and son had been inappropriately cut out

of this business transaction

involving this youth hostel, Giancarlo Granda, and Falwell.

I did my best to find Giancarlo Granda.

I did my best to figure out who he was.

GIANCARLO: Aram Roston texted me,

introducing himself, that he's a journalist,

and he would like to have a conversation with me.

He was asking questions about the lawsuit,

about Michael Cohen.

I realized that this was gonna get messy.

But I was instructed by the Falwells

to give him no comment,

and just to communicate with my attorney, or Jerry.

LILIA: What do you do, right?

He didn't know what the right thing was.

And then has the Falwells really putting the pressure on him now

like, "This is the time. We gotta stick together.

They don't have anything."

But at the end of the day, you know, my brother was worried,

as he should've been,

because people are gonna dig and more things are gonna come out.

- Everything that I was afraid of was about to actually materialize here.

Uh, the whole world was gonna find out about it.

♪

ARAM: Our first BuzzFeed story,

it disclosed the existence of this business relationship,

this unusual litigation,

this unusual youth hostel,

the involvement of the pool attendant.

It also mentioned Michael Cohen.

And it also mentioned the endorsement and how important that endorsement was.

A source said that even before announcing his candidacy,

this source believed there was an understanding

that Trump would get Falwell's endorsements,

which meant there was some sort of relationship

between Falwell and Trump,

and I was trying to understand that.

What was clear was that we didn't know as much as we thought we knew

about the Falwells.

- I should tell you that they don't have what you're telling me they have,

because he made it sound like they told him...

- Mm-hmm.

- ...that they have pictures that supported their theory...

- Mm-hmm.

- ...that there was something going on between you and me.

- Yeah.

- Just wanna let you know, this is gonna work out fine.

- Yeah.

- I'm going to bed. Good night, y'all.

- Okay. - All right, have a good night.

- You wait. You can talk to me.

- I'm actually really tired too.

- I'm sure you are.

It's so hard.

- Yeah.

- Especially when we're not talking,

I just feel lost.

[sighs heavily]

I'm sorry about all this.

- Anyways, I'm gonna go to bed, okay?

- Okay.

- All right. Good night.

- I love you.

- Love you too.

- After the BuzzFeed story, Giancarlo's fucked.

You go on the internet,

and anything attached to his name read "Pool Boy,"

which became a meme in short order

and really started to upend Giancarlo's life.

- They don't really have all the facts.

They started just spreading lies.

LILIA: My brother now, he's in a bad place.

He's upset, falls into, like, this depression.

- It was the first time my name appeared in the press.

No one taught me how to deal with it.

It sucks.

LILIA: Imagine that your job that you had when you were in college

for one year of your life,

that that's what now you're associated with forever.

- This is definitely a manifestation of my worst fears,

from-- dating back to 2012.

MARK: Perhaps BuzzFeed did him a favor,

'cause it planted the seeds for his escape.

[phone line ringing]

And as if this story can't get more bizarre,

enter Tom Arnold.

MICHAEL COHEN: [over phone] Hello? - Hey, buddy. Tom Arnold.

MICHAEL: [over phone] Tom, how are you?

- Happy 4th of July. Happy Independence Day.

MICHAEL: [over phone] Same to you. Same to you.

How are you doing? - I'm doing well.

ARAM: So Tom Arnold audiotaped a conversation he had with Michael Cohen

about the Falwells.

And Michael Cohen told Tom Arnold about this episode.

MICHAEL: [over phone] And I'm just disappointed.

Donald doesn't speak to me anymore.

Um, even the Falwells, who I brought to the table.

- Yes, you did. You did.

MICHAEL: [over phone] None of the evangelicals wanted to support Trump.

- Right. Well, you definitely brought the Falwells in.

You definitely-- With that--

I mean, you did the deal with, uh, the pool, uh, the pool boy.

ARAM: And Michael Cohen laid out for him the scenario

where he said there were,

what Michael Cohen called, personal photos.

Uh, he said that they were the type of photos

that a couple wants to keep between themselves.

- Yeah.

MICHAEL: [over phone] But there's a bunch of photographs,

you know, personal photographs, you know?

The evangelicals are kinkier than Tom Arnold.

- I became a little obsessed with this Jerry Falwell thing

because Jerry Falwell gave license to all the other evangelicals

to go, "Yeah, this is the guy."

I had a show called The Hunt for the Trump Tapes.

I-- I wanted to meet everybody in Trump's world

that was kinda pushed out.

And so I just wanted to connect the dots-- I wanted the truth.

MICHAEL: [over phone] It's terrible, you know?

Nobody wants their-- You know, their private photos.

Especially not when you have children

and now grandchildren. - Oh, geez.

MICHAEL: [over phone] So my heart went out for Becki, you know?

I loved them. They were like family to me.

- He goes, "No, no, what I did,"

and he explains what he did for the Falwells.

And he's like, "No, it wasn't like sex. It's like a boudoir picture of Becki."

And then he says--

MICHAEL: [over phone] I actually have one of the photos.

- He has-- He showed me some pictures.

I feel like a bit of a scumbag too because

even the "boudoir" pictures are like porn.

But that's not the end of this story.

Michael Cohen used the pictures to say, "Hey, look what I did for you.

Now I need you to do something for me."

It-- It was a quid pro quo.

- The Falwells enlisted Michael Cohen's help

to make this blackmail threat go away.

Then the following January,

Cohen helped persuade Falwell

to issue his endorsement of Trump's presidential candidacy.

- When Michael Cohen published his book, he was very specific.

He said he would call in this favor, not for himself but for the Boss,

at a crucial moment in his journey to the presidency.

- It's fair to say that Jerry was gonna endorse Trump,

but the compromising material that Michael Cohen had,

I think that was just insurance.

♪

- These events may have changed the course of history,

but in the New York Times' quest to explain why Falwell endorsed Trump,

they left the most important question unanswered:

Did someone fuck the pool guy?

[audience laughing]

♪ Wake up, Becki ♪

♪ I've got something to say ♪

♪ Listen to me... ♪

- My brother, in 2018, gets accepted into grad school at Georgetown,

to the master's program.

So we make a road trip out of it.

♪

It's me, my mom, my brother, and the dog.

GIANCARLO: We go to DC. My family's helping me move into my new apartment.

♪

I get a phone call from Jerry.

He said, "Hey, we have this event at the White House,

"but after that, we're going to the Trump Hotel.

You guys should come over."

♪

LILIA: They were at the White House for--

It was some sort of evangelical event.

Every top preacher in the country was there that night at the White House.

GIANCARLO: Meet up with the Falwells at the Trump Hotel.

♪ Becki, I'm almost home... ♪

- Everyone's drinking and having a really good time.

There was one in particular that, I had no idea who she was,

but my mom's like, "Oh, she's on TV. What's her name?"

[speaking in tongues]

- Her act is-- is crazy!

[continues speaking in tongues]

But when you meet her in person, she's nothing like that.

She's kinda flirting with people. She was flirting with me.

- I think that night my mom had a kind of a-- a come-to-Jesus moment.

- She's like, "Oh, I understand now. It's all a show."

They have a public image,

but behind the scenes, they're all freaks.

LILIA: I think my mom was like, "Okay, um, I think we're good.

"We don't need to be around them anymore.

Like, ever again."

♪

GIANCARLO: I'm in my first semester of grad school,

and I'm trying to just move away from the Falwells.

LILIA: Once he starts school,

he's loving it.

He loves DC.

He's making new friends.

He starts applying for jobs.

It's a little difficult for him to even get people to call him,

because they're googling his name,

and no one wants to be associated with this.

GIANCARLO: It was just 'cause they were worried.

Like, why would they go with me

where there's so many other people with a similar resume

with no national scandal?

- But he finally gets this interview with this company.

He's super excited.

- The hiring manager emailed me

saying, "Congratulations. We wanna move forward with hiring you."

Right there, he offered me the job.

LILIA: Finally, he sees some sort of light at this end of this, like, insane tunnel.

- It was exactly what I needed.

I was so excited, that, um, I just-- I shared it with Becki.

The following week, I get an email from the firm,

and the hiring manager rescinded the offer.

And, you know, there's times where I felt like

he was purposefully sabotaging everything around me

in order to keep me close and them being my only option.

I just felt so overwhelmed.

That's it. I'm forever attached to the Falwell name.

I was so loyal to this family.

I protected them. I lied for them.

And I end up getting attacked by the media,

and I'm still defending them.

Everything was crumbling.

I felt like there's no way out.

It's all over for me.

- He felt like that was just really the end of the world,

so he went into a really dark place.

It was a really difficult time.

- I started contemplating suicide.

I just wanted to go away peacefully.

And I told Becki, I said,

"My life and my reputation, everything is completely ruined."

Um...

Then at that moment, I just thought about my, uh,

I thought about my mom, and my dad, and my sister

and I just-- I couldn't-- I couldn't make them go through that,

so I just-- I stopped.

Just-- I-- I need a moment.

LILIA: You know, getting calls from your brother

telling you that he wants to kill himself,

that there's no way out of this,

he's never gonna recover.

It's--

It's hard to [clears throat] explain what that feeling is like

when someone that you love so much,

someone that you want nothing but the best for, is--

is thinking of hurting himself.

[exhales]

- That was obviously a dark time,

so... just had to relive it at that moment there.

But [clears throat] should be good now.

- And then, to add insult to the injury,

for an undisclosed amount to make this lawsuit disappear,

Jerry Falwell Jr. settles with Tito Fernandez.

GIANCARLO: There were three events that pushed me to rock bottom

and left me at a crossroads.

The first one was losing out on the job offer.

The second was Jerry settling with Tito.

- Meanwhile, my brother, who actually worked his ass off for years

running this building, managing it, overseeing it,

he had actual stakes in it.

- How do you think Giancarlo felt

knowing that of all people to get a check, it would be Jesus Fernandez?

GIANCARLO: I was upset because they settled,

but there was no more talks about buying me out

or any word from Jerry saying that he was gonna honor his promise.

They just kept stringing me along.

- They, you know, dangled the carrot of, like, "We're gonna help you.

"We're gonna set you up with, you know, real estate and get you going

so you can fulfill all of your dreams."

And they just completely fucked him in the end.

GIANCARLO: I texted Jerry.

"Just own up to your promises

and we can move on with our lives in a peaceful manner."

- He wasn't threatening them, he was saying, "I want my life back.

"Give me what you owe me.

"Let's call it a day. Let's go our separate ways.

Let's be done with this."

- The third and final blow was... what broke all of us.

It was summer 2020.

REPORTER 1: In just a few short months,

this pandemic has infected some two million here at home.

MARK: So by the summer of 2020,

the mood in this country was like, "Is the world gonna end?

Was Jerry Sr. right? Are end times upon us?"

I mean, it's biblical how fucked up this world had become.

REPORTER 1: 100,000.

The obituary names grow daily with no end in sight.

JERRY JR.: There's some bad strain of the flu

that comes in every two years.

For some reason, it's always on election years.

I don't-- I don't know why that is.

GIANCARLO: 2020, it was a terrible year.

We had the pandemic.

George Floyd's murdered.

[protesters chanting "I can't breathe!"]

Civil unrest is unfolding,

it's intensifying.

[crowd clamoring]

And then you have Trump just, uh, kind of doubling down

and not trying to unite the country.

Instead, he was enjoying this.

And he was magnifying this division.

DONALD: You know what I say? Protesters, your ass.

These are not acts of peaceful protest.

These are acts of domestic terror.

- You know, initially, going back to 2012,

I admired Trump.

I thought he was someone I would like to become.

But now he aspired to be a dictator.

My family fled a country where there was a dictator

that consolidated power.

I didn't feel optimistic about our country's future.

At that moment, I realized

how much weight there was behind, uh, Jerry Falwell Jr.'s words.

And if this man was able to anoint Donald Trump in 2016,

then why wouldn't he have that same power in 2020?

MARK: Giancarlo certainly feels like Jerry is responsible for all this chaos.

You know, and why wouldn't he?

The kingmaker, right?

Now, look what happened.

GIANCARLO: When I hit rock bottom, I had two choices:

take my own life or take back control.

And, um, you know, one big takeaway from, uh, from Trump's speech in 2012,

in his advice to win in real estate or business,

or whatever you're doing is--

- Don't let people take advantage.

Get even. - Get even.

It feels like right now, this is happening for a reason.

Me confessing to the world what happened...

would somehow stop one of Trump's closest allies,

which is Jerry Falwell Jr.

I felt like I had a responsibility.

I texted Jerry.

- I think he just wanted to just unburden himself of all of this

and just say, "This is what actually happened."

He had no other choice left at that point

but to just come out and speak his truth.

♪

- I'd been trying to talk to Giancarlo Granda

since I first started working on this.

And I-- I didn't have any luck.

GIANCARLO: I texted him.

I said, "Hey, I would love to meet with you

and just talk about everything that happened."

- I finally met Giancarlo near DC.

GIANCARLO: Obviously, he was shocked,

but, like, it kinda confirmed everything that he, uh, speculated.

- There was an element of hypocrisy here

that was very glaring.

To stand up our story, we needed some corroborating evidence.

- I had certain evidence dating back to 2012, 2013, 2014.

ARAM: There were these texts.

Sort of romantic, loaded phrases.

And another one was this audio recording.

- All right. - Gian's been very busy lately, studying.

- Yeah, yeah, sorta. - It's good, good.

- His new thing is, like, telling me every time he hooks up with people,

like, I-- like I don't have feelings or something.

- You're gonna make her jealous, Gian. - Yeah.

- Aw. I'm not trying to do that.

- Like a week ago, I was in tears for a whole freakin' day.

Completely depressed.

- Come on. You don't-- You don't care about me anymore.

- Maybe the more you tell me, the more I'll get used to it.

- You don't care about me anymore.

- Oh, yeah? Really?

Yeah, obviously.

- In an ideal world,

you'd have videotape of everything that ever happens,

but this is not the way the world works.

[phone ringing]

GIANCARLO: When I showed them the video,

I mean, it was case closed right there.

On January 16th, 2019,

Becki and I, uh, we hop on a FaceTime call,

and she's drinking white wine,

and then she starts stripping, uh, completely naked.

She's walking around the house.

She's going from room to room, the places where we've had sex.

She's says, "Oh, do you remember this?"

She's going to the kitchen, she's showing the island.

"Oh, I know you remember doing it there."

And then she went into the kids' rooms, "Remember doing it there?"

Which is crazy, as, you know, we-- we had sex in, uh, their kids' rooms.

"So, do you remember this spot? Do you remember this spot?"

ARAM: And at one point,

Jerry Jr. appears to peek out from behind a doorway.

GIANCARLO: And at that moment, I'm like, "Oh, my God,

"I finally have the smoking gun that I needed,

uh, to prove my side of the story."

- Well, that helped.

I mean, that-- that was the-- the, you know?

That was, uh, very helpful,

the, uh, FaceTime video with Becki naked.

GIANCARLO: Like, this is 100% true, and Jerry has been involved since day one.

- Well, we wouldn't have been able to run the story

if we hadn't been convinced,

if there wasn't the corroboration that there was.

- A photo posted then deleted from Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Instagram

is now going viral.

A Houston Chronicle reporter posted this screenshot

showing Liberty University's president with his pants unzipped--

MEGAN: And it was an atomic scandal at Liberty.

All these things that were not permissible inside the Liberty community,

are contained in this photograph.

- This scandal was just another thing that was going to back me up.

INTERVIEWER: And I'm just gonna throw it to you.

What was up with that picture on Instagram?

JERRY JR.: [slurring] You know, it was weird [indistinct].

She was-- She's pregnant,

so she couldn't get her-- she couldn't get her pants zipped.

And, uh, I was, like, trying to, like--

My-- I had a pair of jeans that I haven't worn in a long time,

so I couldn't get mine zipped either.

- It was evident that he was drunk on that call.

I mean, he was slurring his words.

JERRY JR.: [slurring] I promised my kids I'm gonna try to be--

I'm gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.

- It just showed you who he really was.

He was just-- He was a mess.

- This announcement was made just before 05:00 this afternoon.

It followed a meeting of the Executive Committee

of Liberty's Board of Trustees.

The committee requested Falwell take an indefinite leave of absence.

Falwell agreed.

- Liberty's board was going to pay for Falwell's rehab,

and they fully anticipated to bring him back, uh, afterwards.

MEGAN: Either they didn't think that they would get caught

or that it would come back to them,

or on some level, Jerry Falwell just didn't care.

Because there was some part of him that thought,

"If I can't live my life in this very fun way,

then I don't even want this life."

LILIA: My brother was talking to the reporter for months.

I, at one point, had to speak to him

because they really just went through every detail,

they fact-checked everything.

- I'm an investigative reporter, so I take a long time with stories.

You know, we never publish until we get it, you know, damn solid.

GIANCARLO: It was a tough process,

and there were certain times where I'm like,

"I don't think this is gonna happen.

I think it's gonna get killed."

- At this point, he knows

that perhaps Falwell and his team are planning something nefarious.

To his credit,

Giancarlo was right.

♪

ARAM: The night before we were going to run our story,

a local newspaper here in Washington published this statement by Jerry Jr.

that laid out this alternate account

of the entire relationship between Giancarlo and the Falwells.

REPORTER: Jerry Falwell Jr.,

the son of one of the most influential TV evangelists of all time,

is publicly sharing a story of his wife's infidelity,

which led to, what he describes as, an extortion scheme.

GIANCARLO: Although I was expecting it, when you actually see it written,

"Oh, extortionist. He's a criminal," this and that, it-- it hurts.

It's like, uh-- It's like just getting punched in the gut.

- It's extremely fucked up how,

for my brother to be able to tell his story

and to come public with it,

it had to go through months of vetting,

and then on the flip side, you have the Falwells

who just email someone that they know at the Washington Examiner ,

and they just basically copy and paste whatever Jerry said,

and then it gets published that same day.

- They published this, uh, this bullshit article

to attempt to discredit my move of coming forward.

REPORTER: Falwell writes,

"Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person,

something in which I was not involved."

It deteriorated into, what he describes as, a fatal attraction type of situation.

The man is Giancarlo Granda, who worked poolside--

MARK: The main takeaway was,

that motherfucker just threw his wife under the bus.

- And they were doing everything possible,

everything in their power to kill that story.

And they almost did.

But I was waiting. I was waiting.

And the next day, you know, the Reuters article comes out.

♪ Ooh, Lordy, trouble so hard ♪

♪ Ooh, Lordy, trouble so hard ♪

♪ Don't nobody know my troubles but God... ♪

GIANCARLO: And then Becki texted me.

"Jerry just resigned."

REPORTER 1: This morning, Jerry Falwell Jr.'s time

as president of Liberty University may be coming to an end.

Falwell telling The Wall Street Journal overnight

he submitted his resignation letter.

"Because I don't want something my wife did

to harm the school I've spent my whole life building."

REPORTER 2: Today's news comes amid allegations that Jerry Falwell Jr.,

while president of one of the nation's largest Christian universities,

used to watch his wife Becki have sex with another man.

- Quickly, the empire starts crumbling, as it should.

JOHN CARLIN: Liberty University is suing its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr.,

for upwards of 40 million dollars.

REPORTER 3: It alleges he was dishonest with the Executive Committee

when negotiating a generous severance package.

Now, the school claims during that time,

Falwell Jr. knew a brewing sex scandal would likely force him out at some point.

- Giancarlo took on all these people by himself.

That's a fucking lonely place.

Giancarlo put a stake in his heart.

He just buried it.

- Jerry was, you know, in the room, laying--

You know, there's two beds, he was laying on one bed.

So Jerry texted me after the article was published,

and, uh, he wasn't too happy about it. He texted me...

I mean, he's obviously... He's kind of fucked at this point.

- Jerry Falwell, as you know, has accused you of lying,

saying that while you did have an affair with his wife,

he was not involved in any way.

- Jerry's lying.

Um, that was his game plan from the beginning,

to just throw her under the bus, um, which I--

- The Falwells are predators, and they prey upon people.

It's psychologically so abusive.

REPORTER: Granda also calling Jerry Falwell Jr. a predator,

alleging Falwell sent him an image

of a Liberty University student exposing herself at their farm.

GIANCARLO: In the middle of the media blitz,

Politico drops a bombshell.

And in this article, one of Trey's bandmates,

he claimed that, uh, Becki jumped into bed

while he was sleeping

and she started performing oral sex.

But he didn't really want it.

REPORTER 1: The Falwells deny the allegation.

- When he mentioned that, uh, she was pursuing him,

sending him, uh, like, love songs and, uh, inspirational quotes,

it just reminded me of my younger self.

I'm like, "Yeah, that's exactly what she was doing with me."

- Anytime you have sex, and then lies, and then mix religion,

I mean, that's some nasty, nasty shit.

DUSTIN: What Granda did was to make it possible for other students

or other victims of the Falwells and of the culture

to come forward with their stories.

REPORTER 1: A new lawsuit says Liberty University "Enabled on-campus rapes."

- According to over 50 former female students and staffers--

- I was drugged and forcibly raped

by multiple people.

REPORTER 2: Heather filed this police report

naming her alleged attackers.

- My assailants were prayed for and let go back into society.

REPORTER 3: They also allege that LU weaponized its honor code, The Liberty Way.

REPORTER 4: Jane Doe 6 claims

her boyfriend slipped drugs into her drink,

but LU fined her $500 for breaking the Liberty Way

for drinking alcohol.

- I think 100% the Liberty Way has been weaponized against women on campus.

♪

LILIA: I'm very proud of my brother.

To see these other stories come out,

I was like, "You did this."

Like, "You came out, you told your truth, you went through so much shit,

but now there's, like, a light at the end of the tunnel."

Like, "People believe you because you're telling the truth.

"You put a spotlight on the grossness that was going on in the school,

the abuse of power."

This is who these people really are.

They're not the good Christians that they try to portray themselves to be.

- I am a survivor of-- of abuse,

and I believe Giancarlo is.

Because now we-- we think of abuse in a lot of different ways.

- Coming forward and exposing your-- your-- your, uh, private life,

and everybody knowing your-- your-- your business, it's not fun.

But I knew that I did the right thing.

MEGAN: Jerry, he has literally been kind of exiled

from the place that he built and his family's sort of legacy.

You have to remember, his parents are buried on that campus.

By banning him, they have effectively prevented him

from visiting his parents' graves.

REPORTER: Falwell tells CBS News he believes he was targeted

because of the number of evangelicals that he was able to bring over

for Donald Trump in 2016.

He told us today by phone,

"Bottom line, it's an election year and I expected this."

ARAM: Falwell Jr. didn't make any more political appearances,

and no more endorsements of Donald Trump.

♪

- The Fox News decision desk can now project

that former Vice Present Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada,

putting him over the 270 electoral votes he needs

to become the 46th president of the United States.

- The Associated Press said that Joe Biden is president.

[laughing derisively] [audience laughing]

DUSTIN: After the election,

Conservative Christians, Trump Republicans, were telling lies

about what had happened in the election and-- and trying to spread doubt.

- At this point, we do not know who has prevailed in the election.

REPORTER: Tonight, President Trump refusing to admit defeat.

[crowd chanting "Go, Trump, go!"]

MAN: God has voted.

Donald J. Trump will stand again in this land, whether you like it or not.

- All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.

- You are not gonna steal this election.

DUSTIN: There were Falkirk Center contributors

who were at the January 6th insurrection.

TOM: Charlie Kirk paid for 80 buses of people

to go to the insurrection rally on the-- the 6th of January.

That money could have come from Jerry Falwell and Liberty University.

RANDALL: These are people parading around

with Christian symbolism,

and invoking God, and Jesus, and the Bible

in the service of sedition.

- We fight like hell.

And if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore.

DUSTIN: There was nothing Christian, obviously,

about what happened on January 6th.

There's nothing Christlike about Trumpism or Christian nationalism.

JACOB CHANSLEY: Thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing us with this opportunity.

We love you and we thank you.

In Christ's holy name, we pray.

ALL: Amen!

ANTHEA: Christian extremism is just as dangerous,

or even more dangerous than Islamic extremism

for one very big reason:

Christian extremists live next door to us.

They sit in the pews next to you, and they work with you.

[screaming]

- Help!

ANTHEA: And the attack in the Capitol on 1/6

was Christian jihad.

- We are gonna have one nation under God, we have to have one religion under God.

ANTHEA: Evangelicalism today

inserts their belief system into the government of America,

hoping to change it into a theocracy ruled by white Christians specifically,

and men in particular.

GREG LOCKE: You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation!

They are God-denying demons that butcher babies and hate this nation!

REPORTER 1: The Supreme Court has ruled

on the future of abortion rights in the United States.

REPORTER 2: The landmark decision from the United States Supreme Court

which has ended Constitutional protections for abortion

that had been in place for nearly 50 years

REPORTER 3: Evangelicals became fully radicalized in the goal.

That was the justification for the religious right's deal with Donald Trump.

He single-handedly shifted the Court far enough to the right,

it could finally undo abortion rights in this country.

MEGAN: In a very real way,

Jerry Falwell Jr. has now officially completed the work

that his father began.

The black sheep and the rejected member of the evangelical community

actually has delivered to them in a very tangible way,

the one thing that they most sought.

RANDALL: One of the great glories of this nation,

and I believe America's best idea, is the First Amendment

and the separation of church and state.

[protesters chanting "Separation of church and state!"]

This whole so-called Christian nationalism movement

that insists that America was and always has been a Christian nation,

the founders were very, very clear about that.

Their intention was precisely the opposite.

To protect the nation, protect the government,

protect the people from religious factionalism.

Go back on that fundamental principle,

to compromise that in some way,

I think is deeply, deeply perilous.

♪