Republican mega-donor Philip Anschutz is a businessman with large investments across multiple industries, including oil and gas, railroads, real estate, and entertainment. His estimated net worth is over $15 billion.
In the early 2000s, Anschutz hired Neil Gorsuch as an attorney to represent him, his companies, and his business executives. In 2006, Anschutz lobbied the Bush administration and Senate to secure Gorsuch a federal judicial nomination to the Tenth Circuit. While a 10th Circuit judge, Gorsuch accepted repeat speaking gigs at Anschutz’s private retreat, and co-owned both an LLC and a 40 acre property with two of Anschutz’ top lieutenants for more than a decade.
Since 2000, Anschutz has been part of the Horatio Alger Association, which has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building.
Since 2000, Anschutz has been part of the Horatio Alger Association, which has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building.
According to the New York Times, as a law firm attorney in the early 2000’s, Gorsuch represented billionaire Philip Anschutz, his companies, and his business executives as an outside counsel. Anschutz’s fortune stems from fossil fuels, railroads, and hotels and has expanded into news, sports, and entertainment. A few years later, Anschutz lobbied the Bush administration and former U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) to nominate Gorsuch to the Tenth Circuit. While serving on that court, Gorsuch accepted repeated speaking gigs at Anschutz’s annual dove-hunting retreat at his private Eagles Nest Ranch. For more than 12 years, Gorsuch was also “partners in a limited-liability company with two of Mr. Anschutz’s top lieutenants,” with whom he owned “a 40-acre property on the Colorado River in the mountains northwest of Denver, where they built a vacation home together.” That property was listed for sale for years and suddenly sold for nearly two million dollars 9 days after Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch did not disclose the buyer on ethics forms he was required to file; later reporting revealed the buyer was Brian Duffy, chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, a law firm that has since been involved in 22 Supreme Court cases.
