The New York Times on Wednesday published an ominous front page story about Neil Gorsuch’s “web of ties to secretive billionaire.” The article by Charlie Savage and Julie Turkewitz never once mentioned that Democratic senator Michael Bennet, who shares the home state of Colorado with the Supreme Court nominee, also has connections to billionaire Philip F. Anschultz.
Savage and Turkewitz darkly warned, “Mr. Anschutz’s influence is especially felt in his home state of Colorado, where years ago Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a Denver native, the son of a well-known Colorado Republican and now President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, was drawn into his orbit.”
Spinning intrigue, the journalists theorized:
As a lawyer at a Washington law firm in the early 2000s, Judge Gorsuch represented Mr. Anschutz, his companies and lower-ranking business executives as an outside counsel.
...
The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, which developed the list of potential Supreme Court nominees from which Mr. Trump selected Judge Gorsuch, receive funding from Mr. Anschutz. But it is not clear how well the two know each other, in part because the mogul and those around him keep a low profile.
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Free Beacon writer Alex Griswold explained what the Times left out:
The Times reports that Gorsuch represented Anschutz in several federal court cases while working for a private law firm in Washington, D.C. starting in 2004. In 2006, Anschutz sent a letter to the Bush administration recommending Gorsuch–who was then in the Justice Department–for an open federal judgeship. Gorsuch also co-owns a log cabin retreat with two Anschutz executives.
But Gorsuch was never a direct employee of Anschutz or a key executive in his empire, unlike Democratic Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet. From 1997 to 2003, Bennet served as managing director of Anschutz Investment Co.
Bennet's ties to Anschutz were highlighted in 2010 by The Denver Post, which reported that "Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz is famous for embracing conservative causes, but he also is a friend and former boss of Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet’s."
The Times story itself even seemed ambivilant about the importance of the connections:
Steven Lubet, a Northwestern University law professor who has written about judicial ethics and recusals, said that so long as Judge Gorsuch disqualifies himself on a case-by-case basis from Supreme Court cases that are too involved with Mr. Anschutz’s interests, his ties to the billionaire should not be a problem.
