GROSS

Lawyer for Ex-Trump Spiritual Adviser Blamed Victim for Her Abuse: Report

Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris admitted last month to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a 12-year-old girl.

The lawyer for a leading figure in the American evangelical movement has blamed a child sexual abuse victim for the more than 100 times she was molested over four-and-a-half years, according to a 2007 correspondence obtained by NBC News. In 1982, Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church, a megachurch in Texas, began what he now describes as “inappropriate sexual behavior” with then-12-year-old Cindy Clemishire. Morris was 21 at the time. In 2007, Clemishire hired lawyer Gentner Drummond and wrote a letter to Morris’ lawyer, J. Shelby Sharpe, NBC reported. The letter reportedly said Clemishire suffered from the aftermath of the years of abuse. Sharpe then replied that 12-year-old Clemishire initiated the sexual abuse by coming into Morris’ bed. Clemishire went public with her accusations against Morris last month in a post published by church watchdog site The Wartburg Watch. Morris then admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior,” saying that he had already “repented” for his act, before adding that he did not know Clemishire, 12 then, was a child. Morris, who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser to his administration, has since resigned as senior pastor of his church.