High-Profile SCOTUS Attorney Accused Of Using Firm's Money To Pay Gambling Debt

A high-profile attorney who has argued cases before the Supreme Court was indicted Thursday after federal prosecutors in Maryland accused him of tax evasion and using his law firm’s money to pay millions of dollars in high-stakes poker debt.

Thomas Goldstein, 54, the publisher of SCOTUSblog, has been charged with several tax-related crimes, along with making false statements on loan applications, according to an federal indictment obtained by HuffPost.

From 2016 until March 2023, Goldstein was the sole owner of his law firm, Goldstein & Russell, and rose to prominence over the years, arguing more than 40 cases in the Supreme Court. In 2002, Goldberg and his wife founded SCOTUSblog, a popular news outlet covering the Supreme Court.

Outside the courtroom, however, Goldstein was a “high-roller poker maniac,” according to a 2008 Washington Post column. He told the newspaper he was drawn into poker through TV coverage.

“I was one of those people who just got caught up watching poker on ESPN,” Goldstein said.

In a 50-page indictment, federal prosecutors shed more light on Goldstein’s professional and gambling life, accusing him of using the law firm’s money to pay his personal debts, some of which were incurred through gambling.

Goldstein allegedly funded his frequent high-stakes poker matches in the U.S and abroad through millions of dollars worth of borrowed money, according to the indictment. He allegedly omitted or underreported his wins to the IRS to avoid paying taxes on them, and the debts he did incur from the games were paid by diverting legal fees owed to his law firm.

During this time, Goldstein was also “involved in or pursued intimate relationships with at least a dozen women,” who he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars while still in substantial debt to the IRS, prosecutors alleged in the indictment.

Four of the women Goldstein was involved with were hired at his law firm in 2018, but performed little or no work, according to the indictment. Despite this, the women still made a salary and received health insurance. Goldstein then tried to deduct these payments as business expenses, “falsely reducing his taxable income,” prosecutors wrote.

In a joint statement to CNBC, John Lauro and Christopher Kise, Goldstein’s lawyers, said their “client intends to vigorously contest these charges” and they “expect he will be exonerated.”

“Mr. Goldstein is a prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation,” the statement read. “We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts.”