Tom Goldstein was not only the founder and EIC of Scotusblog, he was an outstanding Supreme Court practitioner. But compulsive high stakes gambling has cost him his career, his life with Scotusblog co-editor Amy Howe, and, soon, his freedom. - GWC
Prosecutors Oppose Move To Put Off Goldstein Sentencing
(May 8, 2026, 3:01 PM EDT) -- Federal prosecutors are claiming that SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein may have violated his pretrial release conditions when he racked up over $1.7 million in gambling income last year, telling a federal judge not to delay sentencing for the famed U.S. Supreme Court lawyer.
According to a government filing this week, Goldstein — who was convicted on 12 counts of tax evasion, filing false returns, failure to timely pay taxes and mortgage fraud by a federal jury in February — reported the winnings on his 2025 tax return after his six-week trial in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Those numbers call into question his repeated claims that he could not pay his attorneys, and also his compliance with release conditions barring gambling and engaging in financial transactions without first notifying pretrial services," the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The disclosure also casts a new light on his failure to file personal or law firm returns for tax years 2022, 2023 and 2024, the government said.
"Even if he did not technically mislead the court or violate any conditions, his willingness to file a tax return for a year (2025) when he was barred from gambling only highlights his choice not to file returns for years (2022-2024) when he was still actively gambling," the government told U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby.
Goldstein, who was first indicted in the Eastern District of Maryland in January 2025, had asked the court in the run-up to trial for permission to sell the Washington, D.C., home — valued at over $3 million — that he owned with his wife, saying he needed the money to fund his defense. Judge Griggsby denied that request ahead of trial, but the jury that convicted him on 12 of the government's 16 charges in February found that there wasn't a clear nexus between the property and his mortgage fraud conviction, effectively stopping the government from seizing it.
According to a government filing this week, Goldstein — who was convicted on 12 counts of tax evasion, filing false returns, failure to timely pay taxes and mortgage fraud by a federal jury in February — reported the winnings on his 2025 tax return after his six-week trial in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Those numbers call into question his repeated claims that he could not pay his attorneys, and also his compliance with release conditions barring gambling and engaging in financial transactions without first notifying pretrial services," the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The disclosure also casts a new light on his failure to file personal or law firm returns for tax years 2022, 2023 and 2024, the government said.
"Even if he did not technically mislead the court or violate any conditions, his willingness to file a tax return for a year (2025) when he was barred from gambling only highlights his choice not to file returns for years (2022-2024) when he was still actively gambling," the government told U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby.
Goldstein, who was first indicted in the Eastern District of Maryland in January 2025, had asked the court in the run-up to trial for permission to sell the Washington, D.C., home — valued at over $3 million — that he owned with his wife, saying he needed the money to fund his defense. Judge Griggsby denied that request ahead of trial, but the jury that convicted him on 12 of the government's 16 charges in February found that there wasn't a clear nexus between the property and his mortgage fraud conviction, effectively stopping the government from seizing it.
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