The Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor at Living Word Lutheran Church in Orland Park, is one of the more than 70 people included on a list of pardons issued Monday by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.
Lee is one of several defendants in a high-profile Georgia prosecution under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which accused Lee and 18 other defendants, including President Donald Trump, of having broken state laws in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
All of Lee’s co-defendants in the Georgia case, with the exception of Trump, are also included on the list released by Martin on X. The list specifically excludes Trump.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the document posted by Martin said.
None of the people named in the list of pardons was charged with federal crimes. The president does not have the power to pardon state crimes, so the pardons do not affect the Georgia case or any other ongoing state prosecutions.
However, the Georgia prosecution has been at a standstill since December 2024, when a Georgia Appeals Court disqualified Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who brought the charges, due to her personal romantic relationship with a prosecutor on the case. It is now approaching a deadline for dismissal.
Four defendants in the case plead guilty to reduced charges, but Lee was not among them.
Willis’ disqualification did not dismiss the indictment, but without a prosecutor the case could not progress. A statement shared by Lee to the Illinois Family Institute in December, which has supported and raised money for his case, referred to the disqualification as “wonderful news,” saying it amounted to an “eventual case collapse.”
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia has until this Friday to appoint a new prosecutor to the case, according to reporting from the Associated Press. If a new prosecutor is not selected and the deadline is not extended, the case will be dismissed, the judge overseeing the case ruled last month.
The charges against Lee in the Georgia prosecution pertain specifically to alleged attempts to intimidate a Fulton County election worker, Ruby Freeman. Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, were falsely accused of committing election fraud by Trump and Rudy Giuliani, who is also a defendant in the Georgia case.
Freeman and Moss later won a defamation case against Giuliani and were awarded $148 million in damages.
Lee is charged with witness tampering and solicitation of false statements, in addition to violating the Georgia RICO Act. The indictment said Lee went to Freeman’s home and spoke to her neighbor “with intent to knowingly engage in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freeman, by purporting to offer her help, and with intent to influence her testimony in an official proceeding.”
Lee has been interim pastor at Living Word since 2019 and was pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Burbank from 2012 to 2019, according to a biography.
Before attending seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1988 through 1992, Lee had an extensive law enforcement background, including working as a sheriff’s police officer in California and special agent with the Naval Intelligence Service, also while living in California, according to his biography.
Attorneys who have represented Lee did not return requests for comment.
elewis@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/10/orland-park-pastor-stephen-lee-trump-pardon/