Texas pastor Robert Morris, who founded Gateway Church and once served as an evangelical adviser to Donald Trump, allegedly tried to buy the silence of the woman he is accused of sexually abusing when she was a child.
“Put a price on it,” Morris demanded Cindy Clemishire tell him in a September 2005 phone call, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News.
Clemishire, now 52, reportedly responded that it was “not a small number”, eventually telling Morris it would take $2 million to keep her silent about the alleged abuse she endeared.
Morris ended the phone call a moment later.
The Independent has not seen or reviewed the transcript obtained by NBC News. The reported transcript is just the latest in the scandal engulfing Morris, 62.
Earlier this month, Clemishire publicly accused Morris of molesting her and sexually abusing her beginning in 1982 when she was 12 years old. Last week, Morris resigned from Gateway Church’s board of elders after admitting to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the 1980s.
The phone conversation in which Clemishire asks for money is consistent with emails, also obtained by NBC News, where Clemishire reprimanded Morris for “destroying” her life and requested “restitution” for the “pain and damage” he caused her.
“Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” Clemishire wrote to Morris on September 20, 2005. “I want some type of restitution. Pray about it and call me.”
Two days later, Morris called Clemishire to assure her he had left the ministry - which he would return to have two years - and sought counseling after Clemishire’s father and other church leaders confronted him.
But Clemishire believed Morris should have been dealt a harsher punishment for what he did, saying it was “not fair” that he had little repercussions.
“I just know I want to see you pay something,” she told him over the phone, according to the transcript.
The Texas pastor told Clemishire it would be wrong for him to pay her in exchange for her silence. He reiterated that point in a follow-up email weeks later when he warned Clemishire she could be prosecuted if he paid her.
Clemishire told the news outlet she never received the $2 million.
The transcript was reportedly provided to NBC News by an unidentified former Gateway IT department member. The employee said he discovered the transcript document on Morris’ computer more than 10 years ago while transferring files to a new laptop.
That document remained on a shared server since its creation in October 2007 – two years after the phone call.
The Independent has reached out to Morris for comment.
If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331
