Goldstein Isn’t Special and Should Be Detained, Prosecutors Say

Federal prosecutors want to to jail former US Supreme Court advocate Tom Goldstein pending his June sentencing on a dozen tax- and loan-related charges, according to a filing in Maryland federal court.

Any other defendant with access to millions of dollars, significant ties to foreign jurisdictions, “waning ties” to the District of Maryland, and who admitted to lying about his finances would be detained pending sentencing, prosecutors claimed.

“As the government said numerous times prior to and throughout trial, Thomas Goldstein is not special,” the Tuesday filing said.

By the government’s calculations under the current US Sentencing Guidelines, Goldstein faces eight to 10 years in prison. Goldstein may be in denial for now, but when he comes to terms with his fate, he’ll be at his most likely to flee, the government said.

“Facing years in prison, and having learned nothing from his prosecution and conviction, Goldstein has every incentive to leave the United States and get a head start on the next phase of his life,” the government claimed.

Prosecutors said Goldstein no longer has ties to the District of Maryland. His family and professional life are “crumbling,” and his vision for his future—“in which he milks a quarter of a billion dollars from Andy Beal through poker“—would require him to reenter the world of his former client and poker investor Paul Phua so that he “he can build up a large enough financial stake to take a run” at the Texas billionaire.

In the meantime, prosecutors said Goldstein is trying to delay sentencing by flooding the court with “frivolous claims” for post-trial relief while remaining on release, “all in a desperate hope that he is never punished for his crime.”

Goldstein, found guilty on 12 of 16 charges in February following a lengthy trial in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, has been living in his marital home in Washington DC subject to electronic monitoring. He asked Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby March 27 to modify the conditions of his release, saying the his marriage is ending and the time has come for him to move out of his home.

His proposed modifications—either living alone in a Maryland apartment with a nonresidential custodian, or living with his parents in South Carolina—are “woefully inadequate,” the government said. They either take him far from the jurisdiction or allow him to live by himself with no collateral to secure his bond.

“Neither situation is acceptable,” prosecutors said.

Goldstein’s wife and SCOTUSblog.com co-founder Amy Howe has been serving as his custodian notwithstanding their pending divorce. The new non-residential custodian Goldstein proposes, should he remain local, is “unwilling to put up collateral equivalent to that which Howe invested in ensuring Goldstein obeyed the terms of his release,” the government said. And Goldstein’s elderly father, should he reside with him, isn’t “any better suited” than Howe to keep an eye on him, prosecutors said.

Goldstein is represented by Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.

The case is United States v. Goldstein, D. Md., No. 8:25-cr-00006, opposition filed 3/31/26.