Breaking! New Leaked Transcripts Show Cindy Clemishire Discussing Her Abuse With Robert Morris+ “I am not trying to blackmail you”
Cindy Clemishire reportedly asked disgraced Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris for $2 million to prevent her from going public with accusations of his molestation of her as a child.
According to a new report from NBC News, a former member of Gateway’s IT department provided the news organization with transcripts from a previously unreported September 2005 phone call between Clemishire and Robert and Cindy Morris, with the three discussing her molestation and what ought to be done about it.
In the transcript, Clemishire references her previous emails threatening to go public with news of her abuse.
“Okay,” Morris then said, according to the transcript, “tell us what you need to tell us.”
Clemishire referred to her emails from that year telling Morris that she planned to go public with her story or seek criminal charges against him unless he paid for what he’d done.
“Well, I don’t think money is going to help you,” Morris said, according to the transcript.
“Who said it was going to help me?” Clemishire said, interrupting him. “It is certainly helping you.”
Morris pointed out that he did leave the ministry and get counseling after the incident and Clemishire lamented that he suffered so little consequences.
“Two years out of the ministry big deal…I just have a real problem the fact that you have gone untouched by this.”
Morris later responded: “Maybe I wasn’t asked to do enough but I did everything I was asked to do.”
Clemishire asked Morris how he’d feel if someone had abused his own daughter the way he’d abused her.
“I think you would be horrified, at least I hope you would.”
“Sure, I would’ Morris responded,
Throughout the conversation, Clemishire repeatedly insists that it’s not fair that Morris has suffered no consequences and asks how he’d respond if a pastor in his own church molested someone as he had done to her:
“Would you not think they should pay?” Clemishire said, according to the transcript. “It may not help you to see that person go to prison. But don’t you believe that they should pay for the crime done?”
“Well,” Morris responded, “I don’t know weather it would be my responsibility for them to pay for the crime done or not.”
“I really honestly feel like it is not fair,” Clemishire continued. “It is not fair for every single thing that I have gone through and still going through and for you to have no (repercussions).”
Following Clemishire’s repeated instances that Morris should pay something, he insisted that it’d be wrong for him to pay her to keep silent, suggesting that he was being blackmailed, which seemed to irritate Clemishire.
“I am not trying to blackmail you,” Clemishire said on the call. “I am not trying to say you pay me or this is what I am going to do.”
“Ok,” Morris said, “do you want to put an amount on it then?”
Despite repeatedly insisting that Clemishire name an amount, she kept seeking to redirect the conversation back to the injustice of him being a wealthy and famous pastor while her life was one of turmoil and struggle, how she’d suffered at his hands. She talks about how he’d be destroyed if it came to light, arguing that him never having to face responsibility for it is not right. Finally, though, she relented.
“Put a price on it,” Morris said…
“It is not a small number,” Clemishire responded. “Money doesn’t make you happy and I can understand that. So that is not what this is about.”
Morris again pressed her to name a figure.
“Two Million Dollars,” Clemishire said, the transcript shows.
A moment later, Morris ended the conversation.