Secret Emails Reveal Trump Pastor Robert Morris Warned Sex Abuse Accuser She Could be Prosecuted for Seeking Compensation
Newly surfaced emails show how Robert Morris — a former spiritual advisor to Donald Trump — responded to a bid for restitution by a woman he allegedly abused as a child.
Robert Morris, a megachurch pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, once reportedly warned a woman who accused him of sexually abusing her as a child that she could be prosecuted for seeking financial restitution, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Cindy Clemishire claimed that Morris molested her repeatedly over the course of four and half years, beginning when she was 12 years old. Last week, Morris, who was 21 years old at the onset of the alleged abuse, publicly confessed to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the early 1980s. He subsequently resigned from his post at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas.
Morris, founding pastor of the Gateway megachurch, admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the early 1980s.
The influential evangelical leader, now 62, was never criminally charged in connection to the claims. He admitted, however, to a “moral failure” in a statement to The Christian Post soon after Clemishire, now 54, went public with her allegations to The Wartburg Watch, NBC News, and The Dallas Morning News.
On Monday, NBC reported that two decades after the alleged abuse, Clemishire sought compensation from Morris for the trauma he had allegedly caused her. She shared "partially redacted emails" with the outlet sent between Morris, Clemishire, and a former Gateway Church elder, Tom Lane from April to October of 2005 that revealed how the pastor responded to her bid for restitution.
When she was 35 years old, Clemishire apparently penned an email that read, “Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” adding, “I want some type of restitution. Pray about it and call me.”
Morris sent Clemishire a response two weeks later, claiming that he had already confessed to her father, and was under the impression that he had “obtained your forgiveness as well as your family’s.”
He also mentioned his wife, Debbie Morris, in the email, writing, “Debbie and I really do care for you and we sincerely want God’s best for you."
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However, his tone shifted as he ended the message with an apparent warning: “My attorney advises that if I pay you any money under a threat of exposure, you could be criminally prosecuted and Debbie and I do not want that.”
“If you need more information, have your attorney contact mine,” he added.
Clemishire had previously written in emails to Morris that men who “pastor churches that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison and pay punitive damage,” adding, “You have not had to do either.”
Last weekend, Gateway's board of elders announced it had accepted Morris’ resignation. Church officials said they previously believed the pastor's extramarital relationship involved an adult, not a 12-year-old child, and said a law firm had been hired to investigate the matter.
Lane, the church elder on the 2005 email thread with Clemishire and Morris, has also since left the church. He said in a statement to NBC that before the allegations became public, he “did not fully understand the severity and specifics of the sexual abuse she experienced, nor did I know she was 12 years old when the abuse began.”
Morris joined the Republican spiritual advisory board during the 2016 presidential election. After his win, Trump welcomed the pastor to the White House, and in June 2020, the president visited Gateway Church and called Morris a "great" individual.
Trump once called Morris a "great" individual.
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