Goldstein Seeks Grand Jury Material Related to Obstruction Claim

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein is asking the government to turn over grand jury testimony related to its claim that he “offered to pay a potential witness cryptocurrency.”

Usually, the government can rely on evidence without actually producing it in proceedings related to release conditions. But Goldstein’s lawyers say they’ve cast enough doubt on that claim to warrant compelling the government to produce its evidence.

The government made the claim in the course of opposing Goldstein’s challenge to a release condition subjecting his electronic devices to monitoring by pre-trial services. Although the government hasn’t charged Goldstein with witness tampering, it effectively accused him of as much, he said in a motion filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

The government doesn’t claim that Goldstein suggested, “even in the most oblique fashion,” that the witness not fully cooperate with the investigation, his lawyers said. Rather, they’ve alleged he had “no credible reason” for offering the witness cryptocurrency.

But Goldstein said there’s an obvious alternative explanation: he offered the cryptocurrency to induce the witness—his former assistant and office manager—to stay with his firm.

Goldstein had just received grand jury subpoenas “requesting virtually every financial document” in the possession of SCOTUSblog and his firm at the time, Goldstein & Russell.

The witness was departing G&R, and the incoming replacement lacked the necessary institutional knowledge about the firm’s or the blog’s records, he said.

“Keeping the individual with the firm and engaged in the effort to provide materials to the government for the investigation bears no relationship to an effort to discourage them from cooperating,” the motion said. “If anything, it suggests the exact opposite.”

Goldstein—known for his prolific appearnces before the US Supreme Court—was indicted in January for tax evasion and making false statements on a loan application. He’s accused of concealing gambling-related income and disguising personal expenditures as law firm business expenses, among other things.

The case is United States v. Goldstein, D. Md., No. 8:25-cr-00006, emergency motion 3/10/25.