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Newsweek [New York NY]
March 31, 2026
By Dan Gooding
President Donald Trump’s former spiritual advisor, Robert Preston Morris, said Tuesday as he was released from prison after serving time for child sexual abuse that what he did “was wrong.”
The 64-year-old Texas megachurch founder pleaded guilty last year to abusing a girl, starting when she was 12 in 1982, in Oklahoma.
“What I did to Cindy decades ago was wrong. There is no other word for it, and there is no excuse for it. I am deeply sorry,” Morris said in a statement following his release. “I have carried the weight of that wrong for a very long time, and I am grateful—genuinely grateful—that the Clemishires had the courage to bring this into the light.
“Many years ago, I sought their forgiveness privately, and as Cindy’s father recently noted, he extended that grace to me—a grace I did not deserve and have never taken for granted.”
Who Is Former Pastor Robert Morris?
Morris is the founder of Gateway Church, a multi-site megachurch based in Texas with one of the largest evangelical congregations in the state.
While he had served six months in prison, he still has more than nine years of probation left on his sentence. He will be a registered sex offender for life.
Why Was Robert Morris Arrested?
In 2024, Cindy Clemishire, then 55, accused Morris of abusing her when she was 12. She was in the courtroom when Morris accepted responsibility late last year.
The charges stemmed from abuse beginning in 1982, when the victim was 12 and Morris was a traveling evangelist, until she was 16, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Morris pleaded guilty last year to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child as part of a plea agreement.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a release at the time. “This case is all the more despicable because the perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position of trust and authority. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for this day.”
After Morris’ sentencing, Clemishire said in a statement that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars.”
When Did Robert Morris Work With Donald Trump?
Morris served as part of Trump’s evangelical advisory board during his first term in the White House.
His church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 as part of discussions on race relations and the economy.
This article contains reporting by The Associated Press.