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Texas pastor Robert Morris, who founded the Gateway Church and once served as an evangelical adviser to Donald Trump, is accused of trying to bribe a woman who he allegedly sexually abused as a child to keep quiet.
“Put a price on me,” Morris demanded of Cindy Klemischer in a September 2005 phone call, according to records obtained by NBC News.
Cremisher, now 52, responded, “That’s no small amount,” and eventually told Morris it would cost her $2 million to keep her loved one quiet about the abuse allegations, the suit says.
Morris hung up after a while.
Independent NBC News has not seen or verified the transcripts obtained, and the reported transcripts are just the latest in a series of scandals embroiled the 62-year-old Morris.
Earlier this month, Cremischer publicly accused Morris of sexually abusing her beginning in 1982, when she was 12. Last week, Morris resigned from the Gateway Church elders’ board after admitting to engaging in “inappropriate sexual conduct with young women” in the 1980s.
The phone conversation in which Klemischer demanded money matches emails obtained by NBC News in which she accused Morris of “destroying” her life and demanded “compensation” for the “pain and suffering” he had caused her.
“It has been 23 years since you began destroying my life and I am still suffering the pain and damage you caused,” Klemischer wrote to Morris on Sept. 20, 2005. “I will be asking for some kind of reparation. Please pray about it and call me.”
Two days later, Morris called Cremischer to tell him he had left his pastorate (with plans to return for two years) and, after being confronted by Cremischer’s father and other church leaders, sought counseling.
But Mr Cremischer believes Morris should have been punished more severely for his actions and said it was “unfair” that there were so few consequences.
“I just want to see you pay for something,” she told him on the phone, according to the records.
The Texas pastor told Klemischer it was wrong to pay him in exchange for his silence, and in a follow-up email a few weeks later, he reiterated that point and warned that if he paid, Klemischer could face prosecution.
Klemischer told the news outlet he never received the $2 million.
The records were reportedly provided to NBC News by an unidentified former member of Gateway’s IT department, who said he discovered the documents on Morris’ computer while transferring files to a new laptop more than a decade ago.
The document had remained on a shared server since it was created in October 2007, two years after the call.
Independent Morris has been contacted for comment.
If you’re a child and something is happening and you need help, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. If you’re an adult and worried about a child, you can also call the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for Victims of Child Abuse (Napac) provides support for adults on 0808 801 0331.
