Liberty University Hit With Million-Dollar Lawsuit By Its Own Founder's Grandson | Trey Falwell

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]The grandson of Liberty University's founder is now suing the school his grandfather built for $1.75 million.

[00:00:07]Jerry Trey Fwell III filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Lynchburg Circuit Court on April 10th, claiming that Liberty University owes him nearly a decade of salary and benefits after firing him without following the terms of his own employment agreement. This is a breaking story and the details are on multiple levels worth examining carefully. Before we get into the lawsuit itself, let's establish who we're talking about because context here is everything. Trey Fwell is 38 years old. His grandfather, Jerry Fwell, Senior, founded Liberty University. His father, Jerry Fwell Jr., served as president for years and built it into what is today a private evangelical institution with roughly 140,000 students enrolled in person and online and a reported $2 billion endowment.

[00:00:58]Trey graduated from Liberty in 2011 and started working there in 2013. His mother, Becky, recently posted on Facebook about finding a letter Trey had written in middle school about his grandfather whom he called Poppy. In that letter, the young trad described Jerry senior as a great and kind family man who had been extremely influential in his life. The last line, according to Becky, read, "I hope to someday double what his dreams were and be just like him." That letter, she says, is what prompted her to finally speak publicly about what happened to her son. By 2015, Trey was serving as his father's administrative assistant, earning $88,000 a year, more than double the national average for that role. That same year, he was handed a 15-year employment contract. That 2015 contract was written by Liberty's own general counsel and signed by Trey Fwell and Jerry Fwell Jr. in his capacity as university president. The contract stated Trey could be fired for cause, things like unethical conduct, failure to follow directives, or doctrinal disagreement, but it also contained a protection clause. If Liberty fired him without written notice specifying sufficient grounds for termination, the school would be required to continue paying his salary and benefits through 2030. Two years after signing, Trey was promoted to vice president of support services, overseeing several departments and a $350 million budget. His salary jumped to $220,000.

[00:02:32]A 2017 internal email described the raise as bringing his compensation more in line with other senior executives. He was 27 years old. Former Liberty employees who spoke to the Royy's report said he would make significant decisions one day and reverse them the next and that the arrangement rire of nepotism.

[00:02:52]Becky's account pushes back on that characterization directly. She says Trey was promoted by the SOO, not solely by his father, and that he did an excellent job overseeing his department. Now, fast forward to August 2020. Jerry Fwell Jr.

[00:03:08]resigns in disgrace following a cascade of scandals. Photos at a Miami nightclub, a business investment in a youth hostel, and a former business associate publicly claiming a yearslong sensual relationship with Becky Fwell, alleging that Jerry Jr. was aware and present. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, also claimed he had recovered a compromising photo as part of securing Fwell's political endorsement of Trump.

[00:03:35]Jerry Jr. denied many of the allegations, but acknowledged the vacation photos. Liberty suspended him, then announced it was not in the school's best interest for him to return. Alaska Pastor Jerry Po, the former board chair, stepped in as interim president. Here's what Becky says happened next. And this is where the account gets specific and serious.

[00:03:56]She says PO promised the board he would not be firing vice presidents. She says he immediately broke that promise, firing numerous VPs and others. Then in April 2021 on Easter weekend, Po called Trey in privately. According to Becky's account, PO told Trey he needed him to sign a letter of resignation so PO could show it to the executive committee, claiming the committee wanted Trey gone.

[00:04:21]Po allegedly told Trey this was a trick that he planned to let Trey stay, but would show the letter to deceive the committee into thinking he had resigned voluntarily. Becky says Trey was told not to speak to his parents about it.

[00:04:35]She writes that she and Jerry Jr. spent the entire Easter weekend worried about their son, not knowing why he wasn't communicating or why he didn't come over for the holiday as he normally would.

[00:04:47]She also notes this came in the wake of Trey and his wife Sarah suffering a miscarriage, something Po was aware of.

[00:04:54]The following week, Trey refused to sign. Becky says he didn't want to participate in deceiving the committee and he suspected Privo was likely lying about the committee's position in the first place. He believed that if he signed the letter, PO would simply process it as a genuine resignation to avoid taking personal responsibility for firing the founder's grandson without cause. Trey reportedly offered to take reduced pay and a reduced role just to remain at the institution. One week later, he was called into the HR office.

[00:05:26]The CFO informed him he was fired and ineligible for rehire. Liberty University Police Department officers escorted him to his office, stood guard while he packed his belongings, and walked him out of the building. Becky writes that Po himself admitted to Trey that he had done nothing wrong. The lawsuit is legally straightforward.

[00:05:46]Liberty did not provide Trey Fwell with any written explanation for his termination. under the contract's own terms terms Liberty's own legal council.

[00:05:56]That means the school is required to continue paying salary and benefits through 2030. He is seeking compensatory damages of no less than $1.75 million.

[00:06:06]The complaint also cites a violation of the Virginia Wage Payment Act, but Liberty's attorneys have not yet responded in court. Becky Fwell's Facebook post goes further than the lawsuit does. She describes PO, currently listed as a trustee, receiving $784,000 per year for his services, as someone who, in her words, made it his mission to obliterate my family and become the king of the $2 billion empire that he stole and still secretly controls today.

[00:06:35]She contrasted PO's conduct with the character of Jerry Fwell Senior, describing her father-in-law as a man of faith and grace, who was known giving employees second, third, and fourth chances. She says Po has never demonstrated any Christian compassion toward the founders's family. She also shares one detail that cuts through all the legal language. In Jerry Senior's office, left unchanged since his death, a large portrait of Trey as a boy in overalls, hangs directly in front of the founders's desk. Jerry Senior, she writes, told Trey he was always his number one. She says each time Trey hears PO's name mentioned nearly 5 years later, his response is the same three words. He's a liar. Now, let me offer some observations because there are at least three distinct layers to this story that our audience needs to hold separately. Layer one, the contract itself is a governance story. A 15-year employment agreement drafted by the institution's own lawyers signed by a father on behalf of that institution protecting his son's salary through 2030 is not a standard employment arrangement. That is a family protection mechanism embedded in institutional infrastructure. Whatever the merits of this lawsuit, that contract is evidence of a deeper governance failure that predates PO entirely. The Liberty Board under Jerry Fwell Jr. allowed the university to be structured in ways that served the Fwell family's continuity.

[00:08:04]That is a legitimate stewardship question. Layer two, if Becky's account is accurate, what PO did was ethically indefensible. asking an employee to sign a fraudulent resignation letter designed to deceive the institution's own governing committee during the week following that employees miscarriage while forbidding him from speaking to his parents over Easter is not Christian leadership that account is accurate as stated it does not matter whether you have sympathy for the Fwell family's broader situation or not that conduct is wrong period layer three legally sound and morally ly instructive are two different categories. Trey's breach of contract claim may have real legal merit, but the accountability question underneath the legal one is this. What does it mean that a grandson could be handed a 15-year salary guarantee at an evangelical university guaranteed by a contract his own father signed in his capacity as president? And that this was considered acceptable governance. The lawsuit's validity doesn't erase that question. It actually makes it more pressing. Christian institutions are not family assets. They are stewardships held in trust for the Lord and for the people they exist to serve. When they begin functioning like dynasties, the consequences tend to be exactly what we are watching play out. Lawsuits, accusations, family grievances, and a public institution's internal fractures exposed in civil court. We will continue to track this case as Liberty's legal team responds. The Royy's report has been the primary outlet covering the legal filings, and Becky Fwell's full Facebook post is the primary source for the family's account. We'll link both in the description below. This story is not finished. Subscribe so you don't miss the followup.