Washington lawyer Tom Goldstein on Tuesday asked a U.S. appeals court to free him from federal custody while he appeals his conviction and six-year prison sentence for tax and other financial crimes stemming from his side career as a high-stakes poker player.
"Allowing Goldstein to remain imprisoned while he seeks review of his fundamentally flawed trial — even though there is no risk he would flee or endanger the community — would effectuate a grave injustice," his lawyers told the 4th Circuit in Tuesday's court filing.
The U.S. attorney's office for Maryland declined to comment. A lawyer for Goldstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goldstein argued more than 40 cases at the Supreme Court before retiring in 2023 and was a founder of the SCOTUSblog legal news website. He was charged last year with concealing earnings and losses from poker games in the United States and abroad with stakes reaching millions of dollars.
At trial, he admitted he should have paid more attention to his tax returns but denied intentionally violating any laws.
A federal jury in Maryland convicted Goldstein in February for failing to report millions of dollars in poker winnings, lying on mortgage loan documents and making improper payments through his former law firm Goldstein & Russell.
U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby said at his sentencing hearing that Goldstein, 56, was a flight risk based on his international ties playing multimillion-dollar poker games.
Griggsby also said there were lingering questions about Goldstein’s compliance with U.S. tax laws, based on new information provided to the court at the time of sentencing. The judge concluded Goldstein’s appeal of his conviction was likely to fail.
In his appeals court filing, Goldstein faulted Griggsby's instructions to jurors at the trial, saying they "violated due process and crippled his defense."
The case is United States v. Thomas Goldstein, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 26-4392.
For United States: David Bornstein and Jason Poole of the Department of Justice
For Goldstein: Elizabeth Prelogar of Cooley; and Jonathan Kravis of Liu Shur Kravis
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