Law firm head bought Gorsuch-owned property
Source: Politico
For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colo.
Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nations biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court. Gorsuch owned the property with two other individuals.
On April 16 of 2017, Greenbergs Brian Duffy put under contract the 3,000-square foot log home on the Colorado River and nestled in the mountains northwest of Denver, according to real estate records.
He and his wife closed on the house a month later, paying $1.825 million, according to a deed in the countys record system. Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579
Clarence has company in corruption.
Ocelot II
(115,836 posts)Was it illegal to do the deal in the first place?
Lonestarblue
(10,064 posts)Ocelot II
(115,836 posts)qzwv8j
(87 posts)Agreed . Looks definately sketchy. But no where near 5he blat3nt disregard for 5h3 law as Thomas. They need to keep digging.
quaint
(2,579 posts)Apparently the justices could shoot someone on 5th Avenue...
Ocelot II
(115,836 posts)jaxexpat
(6,849 posts)Ethics rules have simply not kept up with those challenges presented by the unfettered proliferation of 21st century Republicans.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)From Rolling Stone:
Politico reported that Gorsuch had sought a buyer for nearly two years for the 3,000-square-foot home located northwest of Denver and that Greenberg Traurig CEO Brian Duffy put the property under contract nine days after Gorsuchs Senate confirmation to the high court in April 2017.
Greenberg Traurig, which employs more than 2,000 attorneys, is regularly involved in cases before the high court.
Grand County, Colo., real estate records show that Brian and Kari Duffy, which match the names of the firms CEO and his wife, closed on a property sold by Walden Group, LLC, the name of Gorsuchs company, on May 19, 2017. The sale was for $1.825 million, the records indicate.
Gorsuch reportedly owned a 20 percent stake in the company, and his two partners each owned 40 percent. Gorsuch in his annual financial disclosure that year noted he received between $250,001-$500,000 for a sale stemming from the company, but a box for the identity of the buyer is left blank.
Ocelot II
(115,836 posts)There is definitely a bit of an odor....
2naSalit
(86,775 posts)Freethinker65
(10,048 posts)Was the eventual sale price way above market value? Otherwise, I can actually understand trying to profit from (or even take a slight loss) to unload property (even co-owned vacation type) if you are relocating across the country for a permanent job.
Appears Gorsuch also reported the capital gains.
Kid Berwyn
(14,953 posts)Freethinker65
(10,048 posts)I did not prepare the taxes when my family sold a non-homestead property and had to declare capital gains.
Also thought purchasers of substantial properties often use LLCs? Surprised the purchaser did so in his own name.
Farmer-Rick
(10,207 posts)Federal workers.
Seems the Robert's Court is not above taking bribes AND hiding them.
So much for good behavior. I'll let the US Constitution say it: "The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour," Sure doesn't look like good behavior to most anyone with common sense.
calimary
(81,466 posts)mjvpi
(1,389 posts)
.the trying to sell for two years then finding a buyer who argues in front of SCOTUS nine days after confirmation. Come on. Ethics demand even the appearance of impropriety be avoided. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck
For the Supreme Court to work correctly, the law and the constitution need to be observed spiritually by the justices. This story confirms my greatest fear about Gorsuch; that he places money in the spiritual realm.
DENVERPOPS
(8,844 posts)his "Mommie".........Ann Gorsuch, and her time in Federal Office and her trail of corruption.....Like Mom, Like Son............
Like many others, she resigned, just in the nick of time, to keep from being charged with corruption like so many in the Reagan years.
tanyev
(42,610 posts)Get yourself appointed to the Supreme Court. Buyers will come out of the woodwork!
Javaman
(62,534 posts)I'm surprised, I tells ya, surprised...
Botany
(70,581 posts)McConnell blocked President Obama's Constitutionally prescribed right to have his
pick for the Supreme Court and Trump got into the White House because of massive
Russian interference into the 2016 election.
Roberts and Alito are on the bench because of bush v Gore and Gorsch, Kavanaugh,
and Coney Island are from that Russian asset called Trump. And Thomas should have
been stopped because of Anita Hill's testimony.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Novara
(5,851 posts)But all is not what it seems.
Novara
(5,851 posts)He disclosed it but left the identification blank. What's more:
So yeah, more corruption.
KPN
(15,650 posts)Ooops. Nevermind. "I should have read further" ....
oioioi
(1,127 posts)Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court, according to a POLITICO review of the courts docket.
They include cases in which Greenberg either filed amicus briefs or represented parties. In the 12 cases where Gorsuchs opinion is recorded, he sided with Greenberg Traurig clients eight times and against them four times.
In addition, a Denver-based lawyer for Greenberg represented North Dakota in what became one of the more highly publicized rulings in recent years, a multistate suit which reversed former President Barack Obamas plan to fight climate change through the Clean Air Act.
Gorsuch joined the courts other five conservative judges in agreeing with the plaintiffs including Greenbergs client that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped its authority by regulating carbon emissions from power plants in the decision that makes it more difficult for the executive branch to regulate emissions without express authorization from Congress.
KPN
(15,650 posts)4 times Gorsuch sided against Greenberg Traurig GT wasn't all that invested in winning anyway. Totally subjective on my part, but what the heck. At this stage, they get no slack from me.
oioioi
(1,127 posts)They already have lives of immense privilege and wealth, that the overwhelming majority of Americans can only dream of.
Yet they still cheat.
DENVERPOPS
(8,844 posts)Ann Gorsuch, his mother, as I remember, was running the EPA in the Reagan years and I can remember she literally tried to destroy the EPA, as well as being about ready to be charged with corruption when she suddenly resigned and failed to be indicted......
I am beginning to think that the Republican Party is, in all reality, a criminally corrupt organization, run much like a mafia family.
Hillary said it best during the debates: "The Republicans are a large right wing conspiracy"...... and everyone, even Dems thought she was paranoid and delusional.....
The humongous amount of lies, and crap that was being rained down on her by Putin, Trump, and the Republicans was un-precedented in any previous election. It became more than obvious that she wasn't mistaken......
oioioi
(1,127 posts)Anne Gorsuchs brief, troubled tenure as EPA administrator had to have influenced the outlook of her then impressionable 16-year-old son, who had moved from Denver to D.C. with his mother before she caused the first major scandal of the Reagan administration.
Gorsuchs appointment was assured after she agreed with Reagan budget director David Stockman that the EPA could easily get along with a 50 percent funding cut. Before she came to Washington, Gorsuch, a Colorado state representative, was already a well-known foe of environmental enforcement, and she brought that worldview with her and her son to the capital. Her chief counsel at the EPA was a lawyer from Exxon, and her chief enforcement officer was a lawyer from General Motors.
In 1981, she met with executives from Thriftway Co., a small Southwest gasoline refiner, and told the company representatives that it didnt make sense to enforce EPA regulations on removing lead from gas, since unleaded gasoline rules were already in the works. After the meeting, she talked with a Senate aide who then caught up with the Thriftway reps and relayed the message thatthough she couldnt tell them to break the lawshe hoped theyd gotten the point.
https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/07/13/epa-ann-gorsuch-tried-trash-agency-scotus-son-neil-gorsuch-succeeding/
Yavin4
(35,445 posts)Can we get a rate sheet?
Moostache
(9,897 posts)Gorsuch, Thomas, Kavanaugh...I guarantee they are all guilty of 10X worse than the information we already know about them. I also believe Alito is dirty as a pig sty to boot. Problem is, the GOP does NOT CARE - they won't prosecute or allow prosecution of Trump and they will not allow this either.
The Supreme Court is a politicized body of appointed hacks and ideologues. There is no redeeming this current court, what needs to happen is a implosion of the entire criminal element on the court and a resignation of Roberts for overseeing the destruction of the court's integrity and standing in history.
Metallica was right all the way back in '88 on "...and Justice for All."
Halls of justice painted green, money talking
Power wolves beset your door, hear them stalking
Soon you'll please their appetite they devour
Hammer of justice crushes you, overpower
The ultimate in vanity
Exploiting their supremacy
I can't believe the things you say
I can't believe, I can't believe the price
You pay, nothing can save you
Justice is lost, justice is raped, justice is gone
Pulling your strings, justice is done
Seeking no truth, winning is all
Find it so grim, so true, so real
Apathy their stepping stone, so unfeeling
Hidden deep animosity, so deceiving
Through your eyes their light burns, hoping to find
Inquisition sinking you with prying minds
The ultimate in vanity
Exploiting their supremacy
I can't believe the things you say
I can't believe, I can't believe the price
You pay, nothing can save you
Justice is lost, justice is raped, justice is gone
Pulling your strings, justice is done
Seeking no truth, winning is all
Find it so grim, so true, so real
Lady justice has been raped, truth assassin
Rolls of red tape seal your lips, now you're done in
Their money tips her scales again, make your deal
Just what is truth? I cannot tell, cannot feel
The ultimate in vanity
Exploiting their supremacy
I can't believe the things you say
I can't believe, I can't believe the price
We pay, nothing can save us
Justice is lost, justice is raped, justice is gone
Pulling your strings, justice is done
Seeking no truth, winning is all
Find it so grim, so true, so real
Seeking no truth, winning is all
Find it so grim, so true, so real
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)his favorite fishing spots, etc.
KPN
(15,650 posts)be meaningful accountability if they've embedded to the highest levels? Can't.
Johnny2X2X
(19,114 posts)The office of the Presidency, the Senate, and the SCOTUS were all considered beyond repraoch by the founders. There didn't have to be guard rails against corruption because only the most noble among us could possible ascend to those positions. So you have a SCOTUS openly taking bribes from litigants who appear before them, and there's literally nothing that can be done about it.
There's so little oversight with any teeth that a party to a big case could make it all totally public that they were paying justices for their votes and still nothing could be done.
We're in big trouble in this country right now becuase of this corruption because the founders never anticipated it.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)Should it be "Law firm head bought Gorsuch" ??
dlk
(11,576 posts)Without any ethics rules, this is merely business as usual for some of the SCOTUS judges.
republianmushroom
(13,677 posts)what the hell are those.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)COL Mustard
(5,922 posts)Laws, like taxes, are for little people.
Joinfortmill
(14,456 posts)COL Mustard
(5,922 posts)Can't you leave the nice man alone? He has big work to do!!!!
ExWhoDoesntCare
(4,741 posts)Somebody wake me up when a traitor party member *isn't* a corrupt wanker.