Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Texas, has been released from an Oklahoma jail six months after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. The 64-year-old, who also served as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, was sentenced to 10 years but only served six months under a plea agreement.
Morris pleaded guilty in October to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. He was ordered to register as a sex offender and pay $270,000 in restitution. He will now serve nine and a half years of probation.
The victim, Cindy Clemishire, publicly identified herself in 2024. She said the abuse began in 1982 when she was 12 and Morris was 21, staying at her family's home in Oklahoma while working as a travelling preacher. In a statement, she said: 'There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child.'
Morris resigned as senior pastor of Gateway Church in 2024 after Clemishire went public. He was indicted in March 2025 on the charges to which he later pleaded guilty. During Trump's first term, Morris served on an evangelical advisory board, and Trump attended a roundtable at Gateway Church in June 2020.
