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The Texas megachurch founder and pastor Robert Morris has been indicted on five criminal counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, from incidents that occurred in Oklahoma in the 1980s.
A multi-county grand jury issued an indictment on 12 March, which alleges Morris was a traveling evangelist visiting in Hominy, Oklahoma, with the family of the alleged victim in December 1982. The indictment alleges Morris’s sexual misconduct began that Christmas and continued over four years. The alleged victim was 12 years old at the time and Morris was 21 years old.
Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory committee and Evangelical Executive Advisory Board during his first presidential term and part of an effort to mobilize conservatives and evangelicals in support of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid. He also hosted an appearance by Trump at Gateway church in June 2020.
“So I want to thank Pastors Robert Morris and Steve Dulin. They’re great people,” Trump said at the appearance in 2020. Dulin, an elder at the church, resigned following an internal investigation of the abuse and how the church handled it. “Great people with a great reputation. I have to say that. Great reputation. And Gateway church – the team has been incredible in hosting us.”
In 2024, following Morris’s resignation, the Trump campaign said Morris had no role in the campaign.
He was also tapped by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, in 2017 to support a so-called “bathroom bill” that sought to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” said the Oklahoma attorney general, Gentner Drummond, in a press release. “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”
Morris, 63, resigned last year as senior pastor of Gateway church, one of the largest megachurches in the US. The church experienced a sharp drop in donations following the revelations of the abuse and a class action lawsuit. That lawsuit, filed against the church, alleged financial fraud stemming from reports that only $3m of its $100m in annual revenue went to global ministries.
According to a leaked phone transcript, Morris attempted to bribe the victim in 2005, who he confessed to sexually assaulting. Morris told the victim, who revealed herself as Cindy Clemishire, to “put a price on it”. The transcript allegedly shows Clemishire requested $2m before Morris hung up the phone.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Clemishire said of the indictment of Morris in a text message on the indictment provided by Clemishire’s attorney to the Texas Tribune.
“Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable. My family and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who have worked tirelessly to make this day possible and remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail.”
In November 2024, Gateway church removed four elders following an internal investigation that revealed the ousted leaders either knew of the abuse or failed to inquire further after being informed of it.
