Inside a federal courtroom in Maryland, jurors listening to the tax fraud case against prominent Supreme Court advocate Tom Goldstein heard something unusual this week: the defendant’s own words, filtered through a long-form magazine profile, rather than from the journalist who wrote it.
That’s because the trial reached a quiet compromise. Instead of calling legal affairs writer Jeffrey Toobin to testify about interviews he conducted with Goldstein, both sides agreed to let jurors review carefully selected excerpts from Toobin’s December 2025 profile. The deal means Toobin stays out of the witness box altogether.
Goldstein, once a familiar figure before the nation’s highest court and a former publisher of the SCOTUS-focused news site that bears its name, is facing a sweeping set of criminal allegations tied to his finances. Central to the case is his parallel life away from appellate briefs — a high-stakes poker career that, according to the government’s case, left financial footprints he failed to fully disclose.
The passages read to jurors describe Goldstein downplaying poker-related debts on bank paperwork, allegedly to conceal the extent of his losses from his wife. Those statements, first made during interviews for the article, are now being weighed as evidence.
Earlier, Toobin had asked the presiding judge to block any attempt to compel his testimony, arguing that forcing journalists into the middle of an ongoing trial threatens the independence of reporting. Goldstein supported that request. With the new agreement in place, the judge said there was no need to decide the issue.
Goldstein has entered a not-guilty plea on all counts. His position remains that he never intentionally broke tax or lending rules and that he relied on professionals in his office to manage financial filings.
The courtroom drama has already featured an eclectic cast. Jurors have heard from accountants, federal agents, law firm executives and seasoned poker players. On Thursday, professional card player Andrew Robl described helping Goldstein prepare for major games. Days earlier, actor Tobey Maguire told the court he had retained Goldstein to help recover millions in disputed poker winnings, paying a hefty legal fee along the way. Maguire is not accused of any misconduct.
Now in its second week, the trial is expected to continue for several more days. Whether jurors see Goldstein as a reckless gambler tangled in his own paperwork, or a lawyer undone by delegation and complexity, may hinge less on who takes the stand — and more on the words already on the page.
