Liberty University has issued arrest warrants for New York Times Reporters and ProPublica after both publications wrote stories criticizing his decision last month to partially reopen his Virginia-based college.
The warrant alleges each reporter committed misdemeanor trespassing on campus while gathering information for their stories.
The Hill reported that Falwell’s decision on March 24 to reopen the private evangelical Christian university campus came nearly two weeks after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) issued a state of emergency.
The New York Times reported that nearly a dozen students had reported symptoms similar to those experienced in positive coronavirus cases.
According to the school’s website, no cases of the virus have been confirmed on campus.
Liberty’s website also denied the veracity of the Times report, calling it “false and misleading.”
“Dr. Thomas Eppes, who was quoted in the Times’ story, denies he ever told the reporter that Liberty had about a dozen students were sick with symptoms that suggest COVID-19,” reads an article on Liberty’s website. “He gave figures for testing and self-isolation that are consistent with Liberty’s numbers but the New York Times preferred to go forward with sensational click-bait that increases traffic.”
The university said that the reporters committed “trespassing on posted property.”
The Liberty University Police Department conducted the investigation.
On April 9, 2020, Liberty University sent an e-mail to each student that compared their response to COVID-19 to other schools.
Liberty was founded in 1971 and has an average undergraduate enrollment of 45,000 students across 7,000 acres in Lynchburg with close to 100,000 students online.