A prominent Washington attorney who argued more than 40 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court was handcuffed in a Maryland courtroom Friday.
According to reports, he was detained after a federal judge sentenced him to six years in prison for tax evasion and financial fraud linked to a concealed high-stakes gambling addiction. Thomas Goldstein, 56, appeared before U.S. District Judge Lydia Griggsby, a Biden appointee, in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the conclusion of a day-long sentencing hearing that marked one of the most dramatic downfalls in Washington’s legal community.
The Democrat and co-founder of the widely read legal news site SCOTUSblog asked the court for leniency, while his attorneys sought a sentence of supervised release that would allow him to “repay his debts, address his gambling addiction and contribute to society.”
Griggsby rejected the request and instead imposed a six-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors had pushed for Griggsby to serve more than eight years.
The judge split the difference but made clear she saw no ambiguity in the evidence.
“Every American understands that they have an obligation to pay taxes,” she told the courtroom, adding bluntly: “I don’t think this is a close case.”
Griggsby ordered Goldstein to surrender immediately, citing concerns that he posed a flight risk and concluding that his appeal was unlikely to succeed.
According to AP News, prosecutors said the misconduct extended far beyond a handful of unreported poker winnings.
They alleged that Goldstein concealed more than $25 million in income between 2016 and 2023, resulting in more than $9.5 million in unpaid federal taxes.
Following a six-week trial in Greenbelt, a jury convicted Goldstein in February on 12 of the 16 charges against him, including eight felony counts for tax evasion, filing false tax returns, and mortgage fraud.
Goldstein was charged in January 2025 with concealing income and losses from high-stakes poker games played in the United States and abroad, where individual games reportedly involved millions of dollars. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In addition to sentencing Goldstein to prison, Griggsby imposed five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $3.1 million in restitution, matching the amount prosecutors sought for unpaid federal taxes.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors offered a sharply critical assessment of Goldstein’s conduct, summarizing what they viewed as his motive: “His motivation was singular: pure, unrelenting greed.”
Prosecutors also told the court: “We can and should expect more from every attorney and officer of the court, let alone one of Goldstein’s status.”
Before his arrest, Goldstein was widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading appellate attorneys.
His law firm, Goldstein & Russell, was long considered a prominent presence in Washington’s legal community.
Goldstein’s career also included serving on the legal team that represented Al Gore during the Supreme Court battle over the disputed 2000 presidential election, which ultimately ended with George W. Bush’s victory.
Given that background, the fraud charges came as a shock to many within the legal profession when they were announced.
His conviction adds to a series of recent cases involving prominent public figures facing federal criminal charges, underscoring how high-profile professionals can also be held accountable under federal law.
The judge acknowledged Goldstein’s professional stature. She described him as “brilliant by all accounts”, and said she was disappointed by him.
But, she made clear, brilliance does not excuse fraud.
Goldstein’s lawyers argued that Goldstein’s story is one of compulsion, not calculation. They argued that he had a gambling addiction while urging Griggsby to let him serve his sentence under supervision rather than behind bars.
Breitbart reported that his defense team acknowledged he had “spent many years gambling with money he didn’t have, and gambling away money that he won, to the detriment of himself and his loved ones.”
