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Canfield televangelist serving as unpaid Trump ‘liaison for Christian policy’
and Linda Linonis
CANFIELD
A local televangelist, who once received immunity to testify in a case-fixing trial in Mahoning County, is serving as an unpaid “liaison for Christian policy” to Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Frank Amedia, who lives in Austintown and is a senior pastor at Touch Heaven Church in Canfield, in a June 1 podcast for Charisma, a Pentecostal magazine, said the Lord conveyed to him that Trump would win the nomination – that God would “put favor” on someone who is “smashing established norms” in politics.
Amedia said Wednesday that he and other pastors talked to Trump about three weeks ago in New York City.
The topics, Mr. Amedia said, were illegal immigrants, pro-life issues, supporting Israel and supporting the First Amendment.
The pastor said he met Trump during the primary campaign when he gave opening prayers at rallies for the Republican presidential candidate in Vienna Township and Cleveland.
“Mr. Trump has genuine compassion for undocumented immigrants who aren’t criminals,” Mr. Amedia said.
That’s in sharp contrast to Trump’s public statements that he wants to deport, forcibly if necessary, 11 million undocumented immigrants.
While Mr. Amedia wouldn’t directly give his opinions on illegal immigrants, he said he, too, has “compassion for those who haven’t committed crimes,” and “solving the problem” must be done in a Christian manner.
Vindicator records show that Mr. Amedia testified in a 2001 trial with immunity about his involvement in a scheme to fix an odometer- rollback case for $200,000.
He testified in 2001 that he was involved in an attempt in 1993 or 1994 to bribe then-county Prosecutor James A. Philomena through Russell “Champ” J. Saadey Jr., then an investigator for Philomena, and Anthony Saadey, Russell’s uncle, to kill an investigation into a Youngstown car dealership rolling back odometers on vehicles.
Mr. Amedia said Wednesday that had he committed a crime, he would have been charged.
He also called the incident “a turning point in my life.”
If receiving criticism for that case is “the price to pay to be a voice to make a difference, then shame on me if I hide. We all have regrets. In my life, that was a stumbling block. [I hope it] is God’s will to take an imperfect person like myself to a better place.”
The native of Youngstown left the Valley in 2000 for Florida, where he served in multicultural churches and returned a few years ago.
He is an ordained minister, prophet and apostle with King Jesus International Ministries, based in Miami. Mr. Amedia and his wife, Lorilee, also a senior pastor, founded Touch Heaven Ministries, www.touchheavencanfieldchurch.com. Touch Heaven Church in Canfield opened in June 2012; they also minister at a church in Florida. He has been in ministry since 1980.
Attempts Wednesday by The Vindicator to reach the Trump campaign were unsuccessful.
Tracey Winbush, Ohio Republican Party treasurer and a Republican National Convention delegate, said she’s known Mr. Amedia for three or four years.
“Good people can make bad decisions,” she said of him. “He is a good guy. He believes in what he preaches, but he’s made some bad decisions in the past. I know a lot of great people who made some really dumb decisions.”
County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said: “Amedia’s checkered track record” speaks “for itself, and this choice makes clear that Trump’s values do not match Mahoning Valley’s values.”
Mr. Amedia said he will see Trump again June 21 in New York City – and possibly sooner – with other pastors to discuss the presidential candidate’s policies on various issues.
Other ministers who met with Trump three weeks ago were Mario Bramnick, president of Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition; Sid Roth, host of “It’s Supernatural” on the Internet; Herman Martir, president of Asian Prayer Network; and Rick Joyner, founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries.
Mr. Amedia is mentioned on websites including www.altenet.org/election, for various other claims he has made. A recent Christian Post story mentioned Mr. Amedia’s assertion that he has healed cancer through prayer and stopped a tsunami by appealing to Jesus.
He appears daily on the evangelical Daystar network, is an occasional guest on Trinity Broadcasting Network and the North American version of Isaac TV, a Pakistan-based evangelical network that airs Christian broadcasting across several Asian countries.