Tom Goldstein, who writes SCOTUSblog.com, poses for {a photograph} in entrance of the Supreme Court docket, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Washington.
Alex Brandon | AP
A prime Supreme Court lawyer who co-founded a well-liked weblog in regards to the excessive court docket was indicted Thursday in Maryland on federal tax evasion charges, which allege he didn’t declare thousands and thousands of {dollars} in poker winnings and used his legislation agency’s cash to pay his playing money owed.
SCOTUSblog writer Tom Goldstein, who can also be charged with making false statements to 2 mortgage lenders, has appeared earlier than the Supreme Court docket extra instances than practically some other legal professional in personal apply in trendy instances.
Goldstein, 54, has taught at Harvard Legislation College and was one in all a number of legal professionals who represented then-Vice President Al Gore within the Bush v. Gore case on the Supreme Court docket, which ceased the counting of Florida ballots within the disputed 2000 presidential election. He has additionally represented Google earlier than the Supreme Court docket.
In November, Goldstein authored a New York Times visitor essay that known as for the top of felony circumstances towards President-elect Donald Trump.
Goldstein additionally has been “an ultrahigh-stakes energy participant, often enjoying in matches or sequence of matches in the US and overseas involving stakes totaling thousands and thousands, and even tens of thousands and thousands, of {dollars},” in response to the 22-count indictment towards him in U.S. District Court docket in Maryland.
The indictment says he diverted authorized charges owed to his Bethesda, Maryland, legislation agency, Goldstein & Russell, to pay his poker-related money owed.
The indictment additionally alleges that from 2016 by way of 2022, Goldstein was concerned in or pursued intimate relationships with at the least a dozen girls, and paid journey and different bills for a lot of of them whereas owing “substantial quantities of cash to the Inner Income Service.”
4 of these girls have been purportedly employed by his agency and paid with well being advantages whereas performing “little or no work for the agency,” the indictment alleges.
Golstein in early 2023 informed the Reuters information service that he was ending his authorized apply and retiring from his agency, which has since been renamed.
The indictment says Goldstein used greater than $1.1 million in agency funds to pay private money owed in 2016, together with playing money owed to poker gamers.
He additionally allegedly understated his playing winnings by greater than $3.9 million on his 2016 federal tax return and omitted greater than $3.4 million in playing revenue on his tax return for 2017.
Goldstein additionally allegedly “submitted false mortgage purposes to 2 separate mortgage lending firms, in search of financing to buy a $2.6 million house in Washington, D.C.” in 2021, in response to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Maryland.
“On these mortgage purposes — which required Goldstein to listing all his liabilities and money owed — Goldstein allegedly omitted thousands and thousands of {dollars} of liabilities, together with over $14 million he owed on the time on two promissory notes, in addition to taxes he owed to the IRS,” the workplace stated. “Goldstein’s false statements to one of many mortgage lenders allegedly resulted in his acquiring a $1.98 million mortgage.”
CNBC has reached out to Goldstein for remark.
