SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein Fights Release Terms for Tax Charges

Thomas Goldstein, a top appellate lawyer and co-founder of the website SCOTUSblog, moved on Wednesday for a Maryland federal court to review the conditions of his release, arguing a magistrate court’s order violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

Goldstein pleaded not guilty to tax and loan fraud charges brought by the Justice Department on Jan. 27 and was released on a $4 million bond secured by his Washington, D.C., primary residence. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan denied his bid to substitute his home for alternative collateral, including three properties in South Carolina owned by members of his family.

The denial violated his Sixth Amendment right because it prevents him from using the equity in his house to fund his defense, inhibiting him from hiring his counsel of choice, Goldstein told the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

The US accused Goldstein in an indictment of using his Bethesda law firm, Goldstein & Russell PC, to pay personal gambling debts, conceal winnings, and disguise personal expenditures on at least a dozen women with whom he “was involved in, or pursued, intimate personal relationships.”

Goldstein was charged with four counts of tax evasion, 10 counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns, five counts of willful failure to pay taxes, and three counts of making a false statement on a loan application.

Sullivan concluded that Goldstein could finance his defense from his bank accounts, but that position isn’t supported by a pretrial services report pinning his net worth at negative $3.3 million, Goldstein said, urging the decision be revisited.

“This is a case in which there is no realistic prospect of flight,” the motion said. “Mr. Goldstein is a deeply respected member of the bar who practiced at the highest levels for decades.”

Goldstein was a veteran litigator, having argued 45 cases before the US Supreme Court before retiring in 2023.

He also surrendered his passport and agreed to limit his travel to the metropolitan Washington area absent prior permission, according to the motion. The court is set to hold an initial scheduling conference in his case tomorrow.

The case is United States v. Goldstein, D. Md., No. 8:25-cr-00006, motion to review condition of release 2/5/25.