Indicted Poker-Playing Lawyer Tom Goldstein Says He is More Than $3.3M in Debt
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Indicted lawyer Tom Goldstein said on Wednesday he is millions of dollars in debt and asked a Maryland federal judge to reconsider his bail terms.
Goldstein, a prominent attorney who has argued before the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) dozens of times, was charged last month in a 22-count indictment related to high-stakes poker winnings and losses. He is accused of tax evasion, preparing false and fraudulent tax returns, and making false statements on mortgage applications.
In a Wednesday filing, Goldstein asked Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to overrule a magistrate judge's ruling that he couldn't substitute his $3.2 million home for alternative collateral. The court previously ordered that Goldstein would have to surrender the Washington, DC, home if he didn't show up to court.
Goldstein argued that doing so violated his Sixth Amendment rights since he couldn't use the home to pay for his legal defense. He said he had $677,000 in equity on the property "that he seeks to use to hire his defense counsel."
Goldstein also noted that a pretrial services report had found that he "has a negative net worth of more than $3.3 million" and argued that his "exceeding debt to his attorneys substantially exceeds the amounts in his checking accounts."
"Moreover, the Pretrial Services Report makes clear that Mr. Goldstein does not have other assets for financing his defense in an enormous and complex case," Goldstein wrote.
Court Orders Indicted Lawyer to Stop Playing Poker While Awaiting Trial
Nearly 80 Witnesses & Tens of Thousands of Documents
Goldstein wasn't caught off guard by last month's indictment. In the court filings, Goldstein said he "has known about the investigation for more than four years and, through counsel, was in frequent contact with the government." According to Goldstein, the United States Attorney's Office opened its criminal investigation in 2020.
Goldstein also spoke to the scope of the case, saying that the government had already identified "nearly 80 witnesses" and had advised the defense that its initial discovery production "will be approximately 60,000 documents."
"Defending the case will require extensive investigation as well as significant testimony by retained experts," he wrote.
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Judge Approves Protective Order for Discovery Process
Also on Wednesday, Judge Griggsby approved a request from prosecutors for a protective order over those documents.
The motion for a protective order, filed on Tuesday, states that law enforcement agents "gathered voluminous records that the Government wishes to provide to the defense in discovery," including tax documents and sensitive personal information.
While protected information is typically redacted from discovery materials before being handed over, US Attorney Erek L. Barron argued that "due to the volume of material at issue, the process of redacting the documents will take so long that the provision of discovery to the defense will be significantly delayed."
"To allow the Government to produce the discovery materials in unredacted form, the parties request that this Court enter a Protective Order," Barron wrote alongside Assistant US Attorney Patrick D. Kibbe and Stanley J. Okula, Jr., Emerson Gordon-Marvin and Hayter Whitman of the Department of Justice Tax Division.
Attorneys for Goldstein dispute the charges against him and argue that "the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts."
"Our client intends to vigorously contest these charges and we expect he will be exonerated at trial," John Lauro and Christopher Kise, who have represented President Donald Trump in high-profile cases, wrote in an earlier statement.
*Lead image courtesy Legaleagle22/WikiCommons
