Jerry Falwell Jr Issues 'Arrest Warrants' Against NYT, ProPublica Reporters
Credit: Getty Images
April 9, 2020

Imagine being so out of it that you actually get one of your campus cops to sign his name to a document that purports to be an 'arrest warrant' [sic] for reporters from the New York Times and ProPublica who were at your university to report on your roundly criticized decision to keep Liberty University open.

So why is Falwell engaging in this theatrical exercise that has no basis in reality? Well, in part, because it's what he does, like Trump, threaten to sue anyone who is critical of him or Liberty University, the golden cash cow that his father created. The other more ominous sign for Falwell is that there is a movement afoot to get rid of him, that he's just become more of a liability than an asset to the University, even with his access to people like Trump and other conservative figures. Falwell hears the calls for his removal and takes them seriously, even if his response is more of a joke than anything.

Source: Talking Points Memo

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., announced Wednesday that he is pursuing criminal charges against a New York Times freelancer and ProPublica for trespassing on campus while covering COVID-19.

“We actually went to the local magistrate, we’ve sworn out warrants for their misdemeanor arrest,” Falwell said on right-wing radio show, the “Todd Starnes Show.”

He added that there were “no trespassing” signs posted on every entrance to campus that warned off everybody except students, faculty, staff and people with “official university business.”

Falwell has been the subject of numerous reports, including from TPM, about his decision to reopen Liberty’s campus residence halls to students after spring break as colleges nationwide shuttered to slow the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Falwell said during the show that he’d send Starnes photos of the warrants, which Starnes posted on his website:

screen-shot-2020-04-08-at-5.38.40-pm

The partial photos of the warrants appear to be signed by Sgt. Alan Wilkins, a detective with the Liberty University Police Department. Wilkins did not respond to a request for authentication.

Blue Virginia transcribed some of Falwell's unhinged rant from the audio of Todd Starnes' radio show:

  • “This reporter and her photographer, and a reporter from Pro-Publica…it’s a George Soros publication, they also came on campus. And we had signs on every entrance, no trespassing…some of these publications actually put the pictures of the no trespassing signs on their websites as they were trespassing. So we actually went to the local magistrate, we’ve sworn out warrants for their arrests…misdemeanor warrants…[They] put our students at risk.”
  • “We feel like we’re not only going to file defamation suits, but we also have sworn warrants out for their arrest for trespassing.”

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