Latest news with #SCOTUSblog
Reuters
19-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Indicted Supreme Court lawyer Goldstein asks judge to toss US tax charges
May 19 (Reuters) - Prominent former U.S. Supreme Court lawyer Thomas Goldstein has asked a federal judge to dismiss criminal charges stemming from his side career as a high-stakes poker player, disputing the government's evidence that he flouted tax laws. Lawyers for Goldstein at law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson on Friday filed pretrial requests to a U.S. judge in Maryland seeking to exclude statements he had made to U.S. customs agents and to force the government to disclose more information about its allegations. Goldstein was indicted in January for tax evasion and other alleged tax crimes connected to his poker playing, which featured games in the United States and abroad with stakes reaching into the millions of dollars. The charges mainly relate to his federal income taxes for the 2016-2021 tax years. Goldstein has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution has drawn widespread attention given his national prominence as a top appellate lawyer before his retirement from practice in 2023. Goldstein, the former publisher of the SCOTUSblog news site, has argued more than 40 Supreme Court cases and represented major corporate clients. Goldstein and his defense lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office for Maryland declined to comment. In one filing, Goldstein accused prosecutors of withholding, opens new tab information beneficial to his defense, including full witness statements from some employees of his former law firm Goldstein & Russell. Prosecutors contend Goldstein illegally deducted salaries and health benefits from four women who did not qualify as employees of the firm based on the little amount of work they did. Goldstein also contends he filed a tax return in each year identified in the charging documents and said that he paid the outstanding taxes with penalties and interest. He urged U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to throw out, opens new tab statements he allegedly made to U.S. customs officials in 2018, arguing he was in custody at the time and should have been advised of certain protections, including the right to remain silent. Prosecutors allege Goldstein told a customs officer that about $968,000 he was carrying in cash was gambling income. Goldstein also said there is no evidence he ever affirmatively instructed office managers at his law firm to mischaracterize personal transactions as business expenses. He said some of the charged crimes fall outside the six-year window in which they must be filed under relevant U.S. tax laws. Goldstein's trial is scheduled for January 2026. The case is United States of America v. Thomas C. Goldstein, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 8:25-cr-00006-LKG. For United States: Patrick Kibbe of the U.S. attorney's office, and Stanley Okula Jr of the Justice Department For Goldstein: Jonathan Kravis, Stephany Reaves and Adeel Mohammadi of Munger, Tolles & Olson Read more: Supreme Court veteran Goldstein wins release again in tax crimes case Supreme Court lawyer pleads not guilty in tax case tied to poker winnings Leading US Supreme Court attorney Tom Goldstein charged with tax crimes
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Dispatch buying SCOTUSblog
The Dispatch is buying the digital media website SCOTUSblog, the outlets announced Wednesday. SCOTUSblog covers all things Supreme Court and has been a go-to resource for journalists, lawyers and court watchers for more than two decades. 'Reliable coverage of the Supreme Court has never been more important,' The Dispatch co-founder Steve Hayes wrote to readers Wednesday. 'With an unbridled executive branch and a Congress eager to surrender its constitutional prerogatives, the federal judiciary is certain to play an increasingly important role in shaping the country's direction.' The Dispatch was launched by Hayes and fellow conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg after President Trump took the Republican party by storm. 'Our job is to help our members understand this role and the decisions that will shape the nation's future, in both the short and long term,' Hayes wrote. News of the deal, the terms for which were not disclosed, was first reported by The New York Times. SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe, a top legal journalist in Washington, will join The Dispatch as part of the deal. Hayes said The Dispatch will maintain SCOTUSblog 'as users have come to enjoy it' and continue to offer its existing content to all readers at no cost. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
23-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
The Dispatch buying SCOTUSblog
The Dispatch is buying the digital media website SCOUTSblog, the outlets announced on Wednesday. SCOTUSblog covers all things Supreme Court and has been a go-to resource for journalists, lawyers and court watchers for over two decades. 'Reliable coverage of the Supreme Court has never been more important,' Dispatch co-founder Steve Hayes wrote to readers on Wednesday. 'With an unbridled executive branch and a Congress eager to surrender its constitutional prerogatives, the federal judiciary is certain to play an increasingly important role in shaping the country's direction.' The Dispatch was launched by Hayes and fellow conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg after President Trump took the Republican party by storm. 'Our job is to help our members understand this role and the decisions that will shape the nation's future, in both the short and long term,' Hayes wrote. News of the deal, the terms for which were not disclosed, was first reported by The New York Times. SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe, a top legal journalist in Washington, will join The Dispatch as part of the deal. Hayes said the Dispatch will maintain SCOTUSblog 'as users have come to enjoy it' and continue to offer its existing content to all readers at no cost.
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The Dispatch Buys SCOTUSblog, a Supreme Court Mainstay
The White House has lately created a torrent of legal news, issuing executive orders that are being met with near-instant challenges in the judiciary. That has put a spotlight on SCOTUSblog, a website that has been a go-to destination for news and analysis on all things related to the Supreme Court for decades. (SCOTUS is an acronym for Supreme Court of the United States.) Amy Howe, one half of the husband-and-wife team that founded the blog in 2002, spends hours every June parsing the court's rulings with Talmudic precision. But now, SCOTUSblog has some news of its own. The site is being acquired by The Dispatch, a right-of-center political news and commentary start-up founded by the conservative journalists Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes. The deal is part of a strategy to 'double down on rigorous reporting and analysis in topic areas where we already have meaningful advantages,' Michael Rothman, the start-up's president, said. 'We plan to replicate this approach with other subjects, including national security, tech, education and conservation,' he added. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SCOTUSblog is something of a outlier in the quirky annals of digital media. Though blogging has fallen out of favor as social media has grown increasingly popular, SCOTUSblog, with its die-hard readership of legal obsessives, has remained curiously durable. Specialization has been a selling point among digital publishers that have endured, such as the tech site The Information or the travel industry news site Skift. The nonprofit that owns SCOTUSblog is being dissolved as part of the deal, and the site's archives and web address are being transferred to The Dispatch. Ms. Howe and some of SCOTUSblog's key employees are signing long-term contracts with their new employer, part of an effort to keep the site's editorial voice intact. Sarah Isgur, an editor at The Dispatch who co-hosts a podcast on legal issues called 'Advisory Opinions,' said in an interview that the acquisition would drastically raise the company's profile among legal news watchers at a crucial time for the judiciary. 'SCOTUSblog is Kleenex,' Ms. Isgur said. 'It is the brand and the product.' 'As Congress has shrunk,' she added, 'the Supreme Court and the courts as a whole have risen in importance in terms of how decisions are getting made at the federal level.' SCOTUSblog is being sold months after Tom Goldstein, a co-founder and Ms. Howe's husband, was indicted on charges of tax evasion that the government said were related to his activities as an ultrahigh-stakes poker player. Mr. Goldstein will not be part of the site as it transitions to The Dispatch, Mr. Rothman said. A spokeswoman for Mr. Goldstein has said he has an 'impeccable reputation' and intends to contest the charges. The Dispatch will keep articles on SCOTUSblog available at no cost, though it plans to develop paid products for legal professionals in the coming months, Mr. Rothman said.
Reuters
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Supreme Court veteran Goldstein wins release again in tax crimes case
Feb 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ordered Tom Goldstein's release from jail, three days after the prominent Washington lawyer and appellate law expert was arrested and detained for allegedly violating pretrial release terms in a tax prosecution tied to his high-stakes poker playing. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan in Greenbelt, Maryland said there was not enough evidence that Goldstein concealed recent cryptocurrency transactions from the court to keep him incarcerated, though the judge said he suspected that Goldstein engaged in such transfers. The judge after a hearing imposed new release conditions, opens new tab on Goldstein, requiring his internet usage to be monitored and forbidding him from spending, receiving or transferring any cryptocurrency. Sullivan said he found it likely that Goldstein may have access to unidentified funds that would allow him "to flee from prosecution in this case." Goldstein, publisher of the website SCOTUSblog who has argued more than 40 U.S. Supreme Court cases, was indicted last month on 22 counts of tax evasion and other tax crimes allegedly connected to his side career as a poker player. The indictment said Goldstein won and lost millions of dollars in individual poker matches and made improper payments through his law firm to cover debts. He pleaded not guilty on January 27 and was granted pretrial release. Attorneys for Goldstein did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Maryland U.S. attorney's office declined to comment beyond confirming Goldstein was released. Prosecutors earlier this week alleged that Goldstein had transferred millions of dollars in cryptocurrency through concealed accounts in the days following his initial release, leading to Goldstein's second arrest and detention on Monday. Goldstein argued in court papers this week that the crypto transfers were made in 2023 and that he did not own the accounts in question. Evidence supplied by Goldstein cast "sufficient doubt" on the government's allegations to warrant his release, Sullivan said in a six-page order, opens new tab on Thursday, but he said Goldstein had not disproved the government's allegations.
