I’m a bit late turning to the Politico article by Heidi Przybyla from last Tuesday that tries to raise a stink over Justice Gorsuch’s supposed failure to “disclose the identity of the purchaser” in 2017 of a mountain property that he co-owned in Colorado. Apart from meetings and travel that occupied me, I thought it evident that anyone who read beyond the article’s opening paragraphs would quickly discover that there was zero reason to believe that the buyer of the property, Brian Duffy, CEO of the Greenberg Traurig law firm, was trying to influence Gorsuch. Among other things:
- The initial asking price for the property was $2.495 million, but Duffy bought it for only $1.825 million.
- “Duffy said he did not know Gorsuch was one of the owners when he made his first offer” and that Gorsuch’s ownership interest was “absolutely irrelevant to the purchase of that property.” Duffy had “been looking for the right property for his family for many years.
- Duffy attested that he doesn’t know Gorsuch: “I’ve never spoken to him. I’ve never met him.”
- Gorsuch had only a 20% stake in the property. (It would be rather odd for an influence schemer to give 80% of any benefit to folks who aren’t his target.)
- Duffy’s political contributions are primarily to Democratic candidates.
In short, in the utter absence of any reason to believe that Duffy is lying, his purchase of the property was an arm’s-length transaction at market price and raises no ethical concerns.
A tweet thread Tuesday morning also demolished Przybyla’s claim that Gorsuch’s disclosure was inadequate. In brief: Gorsuch’s ownership interest in the property was via his 20% interest in a limited liability corporation, Walden Group LLC, that he and his two 40% co-owners had established to buy the property in 2005 (before Gorsuch was even a judge). It’s Walden Group LLC, not Gorsuch, that sold the property to Duffy. What Gorsuch properly reported on his disclosure form was the ensuing termination of his interest in Walden Group LLC (perhaps via the LLC’s buyback of his shares at year end). That’s why the date of the reported transaction is December 31, 2017, rather than the spring 2017 date of Walden Group’s sale to Duffy. Duffy was not a buyer in that transaction, and it would have been a false statement to list him as such. (Whether additional reporting of LLC transactions should be required is a different question.)
Surely, I naively thought, Przybyla would promptly retract her claim, and the article would die a quiet death.
Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, lots of folks on the Left have been taking cheap whacks at Gorsuch. A few examples:
On Slate, Dennis Aftergut contends that Gorsuch’s “extraordinary omission” presents the “specter” of “corruption.” Aftergut conveniently neglects to mention any of the facts that dispel that specter.
Also on Slate, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern charge that Gorsuch “hid” Duffy’s identity. (They also are baffled by how the absence of any relationship between Gorsuch and Duffy can be one of the facts that demonstrates that the sale was an arm’s-length transaction, while the friendship between Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas can explain that Crow’s largesse was not intended to influence Thomas’s decisionmaking.)
And a blaring title on a post on another lefty website proclaims a “bribery scandal.” The author contends that the purchase made Gorsuch “a few hundred thousand dollars richer in the process.” But an arm’s-length transaction at market price didn’t make Gorsuch a dime “richer.” It instead converted his real-estate wealth to cash wealth. (The author does go on to present the facts that refute the post’s title.)
I’m pleased to call attention to a fine Wall Street Journal op-ed today in which Nicholas Tomaino concisely sets things straight.