Rev. Stephen Lee from Orland Park church surrenders in Trump Georgia case
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The Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, pastor at Living Word Lutheran Church in Orland Park, turned himself in to authorities at Fulton County Jail in Georgia Friday afternoon.
On Aug. 14, Lee was named along with 18 others, including former President Donald Trump who turned himself in Thursday, in an indictment the group broke a variety of laws in an effort to alter the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Lee is pleading not guilty, according to his lawyer David Shestokas.
“It was standard operating procedure, it was smooth,” Shestokas said of the booking process at Fulton County Jail. “He was the last person to surrender because he thought he was going to jail.”
Shestokas and Lee were preparing to board a plane back to Midway Airport Friday. Lee fully plans to be back preaching at Living Word on Sunday, Shestokas said.
But his release came as a surprise to Shestokas, who said Thursday Lee did not have the funds for bail. In fact, he and his client bought one-way tickets to Georgia, he said.
Those concerns were assuaged Friday morning when a fund set up by Illinois Family Institute raised the $7,500, or 10% of the total bond, needed to release Lee from custody, according to Shestokas’ office.
The Illinois Family Institute had raised only about half the necessary funds by Thursday, but the remaining balance was covered by popular conservative media personality Herneitha Rochelle “Silk” Hardaway Richardson, according to executive director David E. Smith and Shestokas’ media relations director and sister, Jill Shestokas.
David Shestokas did a video podcast with Silk Thursday in which Lee’s inability to pay bond came up. Silk and her team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee along with his co-defendants all had their mug shots taken. Shestokas said he told his client to hold a serious gesture.
“I think the mug shot for Rev. Lee turned out … as well as you’d expect,” he said. “This is serious business. Whatever you may think of the charges, … it’s a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.”
The indictment includes Lee because of an interaction between him and an election worker named Ruby Freeman in December 2020. The indictment states Lee knocked on Freeman’s door and spoke to her neighbor “with intent to knowingly engage in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freemen, by purporting to offer her help, and with intent to influence her testimony.”
Freeman was the subject of scrutiny from Trump and others over allegations she altered voting results. In March, these allegations were “found to have no merit” according to a report released by the Georgia secretary of state’s office, which conducted an investigation that elicited the help of several agencies including the FBI.
Video evidence shows Lee knocking on Freeman’s door. But Shestokas said that is not a crime.
“Pastor Lee is indicted for knocking on a couple of doors,” he said.
