By Jessice Schneider and Tierney Sneed | CNN
A nearly $2 million sale of property co-owned by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to a prominent law firm executive in 2017 is raising new questions about the lax ethics reporting requirements for Supreme Court justices.
Property records from Grand County, Colorado, show that the Walden Group LLC — a limited-liability company in which Gorsuch was a partner — sold a 40-acre property on the Colorado River to Brian Duffy, chief executive officer of the prominent law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Duffy and his wife, Kari Duffy, paid $1.8 million for the property on May 12, 2017 — just one month after Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
The sale was first reported by Politico.
The financial disclosure report filed by Gorsuch for the calendar year 2017 lists a sale by the Walden Group LLC for a profit of between $250,000 and $500,000. However, the section where a buyer could be listed is blank. It’s unclear if that’s a violation of ethics rules.
Brian Duffy is currently based in Denver and previously served as president and chair of the Greenberg Traurig’s 600-member global litigation department.
Lawyers at Greenberg Traurig have appeared in numerous cases that have come before the Supreme Court since Gorsuch joined the bench in April 2017. Duffy told Politico that he had not himself argued any cases that were in front Gorsuch, nor had he and the justice met in a social capacity.
“I’ve never spoken to him,” Duffy said, according to the Politico report. “I’ve never met him.”
The Supreme Court has not responded to a request for comment. CNN also has reached out to Duffy and representatives for Greenberg Traurig.
Notably, another lawyer in the Greenberg Traurig’s Denver office led the legal team representing state of North Dakota in a dispute over the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority in regulating carbon emissions as part of the Clean Air Act.
Gorsuch…
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