Megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser pleads guilty to child sexual abuse
www.theguardian.com
Robert Morris to serve only six months in county jail after charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with child

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47246639

Cindy Clemishire, 55, the woman who publicly identified herself as the victim of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she told him: “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.”

A leaked transcript of a phone call revealed that in 2005 Morris tried to bribe Clemishire into silence, telling her to “put a price on it”.

He also became a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump. He joined the White House spiritual advisory committee during the first Trump presidency and was part of a campaign to mobilize evangelical voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.

Trump also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he praised Morris and his senior team as “great people with a great reputation”.

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
    4·
    23 hours ago

    She made the allegations 35 years ago. But because he was one of the “good old boys,” no one did anything.

    According to a statement posted on social media from elders at the church, the allegations were brought to light 35 years ago.

    After that, he stepped away from ministry for two years to receive counseling. He acknowledged in a sermon in 2014 that he was “sexually immoral” when he was a teenager.

    He returned to ministry in March of 1989, two years after his abuse was exposed, he says with blessing from the girl’s father and church elders.

    A teenage girl, in Texas. Where it is legal to fuck kids if you marry them. Her dad even took the rapist fuck’s side. He admitted to it to his flock, but characterized it as consensual.

    She probably did tell a cop, who probably asked her what she did to entice him. People on here have this delusion where reporting rape does anything. I know of a local middle school where a teacher fucked kids for decades before finally enough spoke up for them to do anything.