A former Texas megachurch pastor and spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl when he was 20.
Robert Morris, 64, admitted to five counts of lewd acts with a child—all felonies, NBC News reported. Morris’ plea deal, made in Oklahoma’s Osage County District Court, resulted in a suspended 10-year sentence that will require Morris to serve just six months in county jail. He has also been ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution and will need to register as a sex offender.
Morris, the founder of Texas’ Gateway Church, was indicted in March. In 2024, Cindy Clemishire had publicly claimed Morris had sexually assaulted her multiple times when she was underage.
Morris responded with a quasi-confession, telling The Christian Post that it was “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady.” Clemishire was 12 when the abuse began.
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris said.
Clemishire recalled there being more than 100 instances of abuse by Morris over 4.5 years, beginning in December 1982. According to the indictment, Morris had been visiting Clemishire’s family in Oklahoma that Christmas as a traveling evangelist.
Clemishire said Morris invited her into his room and told her to lie on her back. She said Morris then felt her breasts and under her panties.
“Never tell anyone about this,” Clemishire said Morris told her. “It will ruin everything.”
Decades later, after Clemishire sought $50,000 in restitution, Morris tried to keep her quiet. “Put a price on it,” Morris told her in a Sept. 22, 2005 call obtained by NBC News. Clemishire rejected his offer of $25,000 because it would have required signing a non-disclosure agreement.
On top of that, according to NBC, one of Morris’ lawyers blamed Clemishire two years later for Morris’ abuse.
Clemishire was in the courtroom Thursday for Morris’ plea, after which he was led away in handcuffs.
“Let me be clear,” she told Morris. “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You committed a crime against me.”
“Today marks a new beginning for me, my family and my friends who have been by my side throughout this horrendous journey,” Clemishire added. “Robert, I want you to see me clearly: I am no longer the silenced little girl you abused.”
Morris first entered Trump’s orbit nearly a decade ago. In 2016, the Trump campaign included him on its evangelical executive advisory board. After Trump won the election, Morris served on the president’s faith advisory council. And in June 2020, Morris hosted Trump at his church for a “Roundtable on Transition to Greatness.”
Morris had no role in Trump’s 2024 campaign, a spokesperson said, after Clemishire had gone public with her allegations and Morris had resigned from his church.
The post Trump’s Former Faith Adviser Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Abuse appeared first on The Daily Beast.
