A lawyer for former Texas MAGAchruch Pastor Robert Morris, who served on convicted felon former President Trump’s “spiritual advisory council” and until last month led the large Gateway Church chain of congregations, had in 2007 told molestation victim Cindy Clemishire she was the one who had “initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen,” on Christmas in 1980 when Clemshire was 12 and Morris was 20 or 21 and he had been staying with her family in Oklahoma, NBC News reports.
Morris resigned from Gateway last month after Clemishire came forward, obviously for not the first time as an adult, and admitted he had in fact molested her decades ago. The victim blaming bit was written by lawyer J Shelby Sharpe in response to Clemishire having hired a lawyer – Gentner Drummond, now Oklahoma’s Attorney General – and threatening to sue Morris, seeking $50,000 to cover the cost of counseling for the trauma of being molested, only for Clemishire to back out when Morris offered $25,000 if she signed an NDA. Sharpe denied to NBC he knew that Clemishire was 12 years old during the encounter. When confronted with a document stating it very clearly and that he definitely would have seen, Sharpe ceased contact with NBC and did not answer any emails.
Sharpe’s other clients include Southern Baptist Convention leader Paige Patterson, accused of covering up multiple instances of sexual assault and abuse within the organizations he oversaw.