Kendall pastor indicted with Trump speaks in Geneva, says religious freedoms at risk

GENEVA – A Lutheran pastor who began his career in law enforcement, Rev. Stephen C. Lee appears an unlikely person to be indicted alongside former President Donald Trump.

Lee, Trump and 17 others were charged in Georgia under an anti-racketeering statute, alleging a conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Trump.

Lee, who lives in Kendall County, and his attorney David Shestokas spoke for 90 minutes to guests of the conservative Three Headed Eagle Alliance on Nov. 14 at the Eagle Brook Country Club in Geneva.

They framed the allegations as an attack on Lee’s First Amendment freedoms of free speech and religion – that Lee had a right to go to Georgia and knock on a door.

“This fight is everybody’s fight,” Shestokas said. “If there is any success … all of our First Amendment rights will diminish.”

Lee had served in crisis situations before – at the mass shooting in Columbine and the 9/11 attacks – and he saw the country was in crisis and was responding to it when he went to Georgia, Shestokas said.

“America was in crisis after the 2020 election,” Shestokas said.

Lee said the charges against him are persecution for following his rights as laid out in the First Amendment, in particular in his case, freedom of religion.

“That is what I am guilty of doing – exercising my freedom according to my duty,” Lee said.

“We need to retain, we need to preserve, we need to fight for our freedoms,” Lee, 71, said. “Fundamentally, I am not a political person. I’m a person, that – I hope – is based in principle. And fundamentally in my faith. And I try to be faithful as a Lutheran pastor. That’s who I am.”

He recounted his life’s journey: married 46 years, four children; in law enforcement as a patrol officer, sergeant, corrections officer, juvenile officer, SWAT team, major crimes and Navy Criminal Investigative Service.

“Then felt the Lord’s call to go into the ministry because I wanted to get into the most basic of human needs and that’s a spiritual need,” Lee said. “The human condition – the human heart – is hungry for love, for purpose, for place, for hope, not despair. And that is what the Christian gospel gives us to our deepest needs. This is my conviction.”

The former president and his supporters lost or withdrew more than 50 lawsuits because of a lack of evidence in challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.

The charges

The charges against Lee are one count of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in that he, Trump and the other defendants “refused to accept that Trump lost and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”

Other charges against Lee allege that on or about Jan. 4, 2021, he, along with Harrison W.P. Floyd and Trevian C. Kutti sought false statements from Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman.

The indictment states they told Freeman “she needed protection and purported to offer her help with the intent to influence her testimony in an official proceeding in Fulton County, Georgia, concerning events at State Farm Arena in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election.”

Lee also was charged with traveling to Freeman’s home and speaking to her neighbor as “a substantial step toward the commission of misleading conduct toward Ruby Freeman by purporting to offer her help and with intent to influence her testimony.”

The indictment states there were multiple text messages between the men, including 33 phone calls from Jan. 4-5, 2021, between the three.

“I’m accused of trying to solicit people to lie, illegally. To do something that’s wrong,” Lee said. “This is the furthest thing from the truth. My role, my job, my responsibility, my duty, my calling is summarized maybe best by Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:15: Speaking the truth in love. We speak the truth. We always shed light not hide in the darkness. We are transparent. We do things openly and honestly and legally. We support the rule of law.”

As a pastor, Lee said he took divine vows to speak the truth and he would not promote lies nor subvert the truth.

“I have my flaws and my faults, but that isn’t one of them,” Lee said. “And to be in this situation is totally shocking.”

If he were to be convicted under the RICO statute, Lee would be looking at a minimum of five years in prison or as much as 20 years without parole or probation.

“If the other charges are added on to that – in theory they could – that could be up to 90+ years. That’s a death sentence,” Lee said. “If that were to happen, I would consider it all joy as the word of God says, not emotionally, but in terms of the faith.”

Though retired, Lee said he continues to serve as pastor of Living Word Lutheran Church in Orland Park while they seek another pastor.

“My church is 100% behind me,” Lee said.

No deal for Lee

Attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, former Trump allies, also were indicted along with Lee. Both have pleaded guilty.

Lee said he will not take a deal.

Shestokas said he is happy his client will not plead guilty to a lie.

“There is no crime in what they described,” Shestokas said. “He allegedly knocked on the door of [Georgia election worker] Ruby Freeman to get some directions.”

Shestokas said he is seeking to sever Lee’s case from the others, but it might be denied and his client will be tried with everyone else.

That is why Shestokas is seeking donations to carry Lee through the court process in Georgia, estimating it would cost $120,000 to $140,000 to go through repeated court appearances over nine to 10 months.

“It’s very onerous to plead not guilty,” Shestokas said.

A GiveSendGo account, set up by Shestokas’ law firm, is seeking $100,000 in donations. So far, the account has raised $11,390.

“America’s chaplain Rev. Steve Lee was indicted along with President Trump and 17 others,” according to the GiveSendGo account. “Pastor Lee is an American hero, not a criminal for pastorally knocking on doors as accused by District Attorney Fani Willis. It’s time for us to stop this political persecution and be there for him.”

The Three Headed Eagle Alliance took up a collection.

Last year, Georgia prosecutors subpoenaed Lee, but Kendall County Judge Robert Pilmer refused to compel his appearance to testify in the investigation, Shestokas said.

“The authority of a grand jury to compel testimony ends at the borders of the state,” Shestokas said. “Over three days of testimony … the judge in Kendall County quashed the subpoena, denied the request to compel his appearance in Georgia and ultimately said they don’t even have enough evidence to consider him a material witness in this matter.”

The judge gave Georgia prosecutors 30 days to bring more evidence, but they never provided any more information, Shestokas said.

St. Charles resident Laura Terzo said she felt like he was pleading his character to the world “so that way we really know who he was and we have a history of all the places that he did work.”

“And the way leadership is going these days, that was laying the groundwork for this kind of charge,” Terzo said. “The charges are being brought up on people who are trying to question what’s going on with the election. … He’s worked for some very heavy-hitting places, so there could be a lot of people in those places, a lot of things going on.”

Chicago resident Lynn Wesley said it didn’t seem like Lee intended to do any harm.

“And for him to feel like he needed to do something – maybe wrong, maybe right about an election – and wanted to talk to a woman who was accused of maybe doing something illegally,” Wesley said. “We don’t know why he wanted to talk to her. … He’s been a sheriff, he’s been a pastor … to take a person with that kind of character and indict him? This is beyond belief.”