A Texas megachurch in suburban Dallas has fired several elders after launching an investigation into abuse allegations against Robert Morris, the church's founder and former adviser to Donald Trump.

Morris resigned from Gateway Church in June after admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior toward a young lady” in the 1980s. His resignation came after Cindy Clemishire said he molested her when she was 12 years old.

Morris was a member of Trump's faith advisory council, and his church hosted the former president at its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy. However, Trump's campaign team said The New York Times Morris was not involved in his bid for the White House in 2024.

Now, a law firm hired by Gateway Church to investigate the allegations says it found a group of elders and staff who knew Clemishire was 12 at the time of the abuse she reported, Fox4 reports. Another group knew about the allegations but asked no questions, the investigation found.

According to Fox4, Clemishire said she told Gateway Church leaders about her abuse more than once.

When Morris resigned, Gateway Church's board of elders said it had not previously been given “all the facts about the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the duration of the abuse.”

Now the elders of both groups have been released, Fox4 reported. Employees included in these groups are now prohibited from becoming elders.

“We need to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that our culture has allowed this truth to be buried for too long,” Gateway Church elder Tra Willbanks said, according to Fox4. “At some point in the past, Gateway's culture evolved into one where power was centralized and the leader at the top was surrounded by people who wanted to protect him. Some of them at any cost.”

“You should also know that Gateway Church is currently cooperating fully with an ongoing criminal investigation, the details of which we cannot share with you at this time,” Willbanks added.

Clemishire, now 52, ​​said Morris and his wife were staying at her family home when she was 12 years old. She said he asked her to come to his room, where he told her to lie on his bed and began touching her.

She said the abuse continued until 1987, when she told her parents.

J. Shelby Sharpe, an attorney for Morris, reportedly claimed in 2007 that the child was actually to blame.

“It was your client who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client's bedroom and going to bed with him, which my client should not have allowed,” Sharpe wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News. Sharpe told the outlet that he did not know at the time Clemishire was a child during the reported abuse.

In a statement before his resignation, Morris insisted he had no dealings with Clemishire.

“When I was in my early twenties, I engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in the house where I was staying. It was kissing and caressing and not sexual intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.

The Independent has reached out to Trump's campaign team for comment. Gateway Church declined to comment.