A prominent Supreme Court attorney and co-founder of the influential SCOTUSblog was convicted Wednesday on multiple federal charges related to tax evasion stemming from his secret life as a high-stakes poker player.

Thomas Goldstein, who has argued more than 40 cases before the nation’s highest court, was found guilty of 12 out of 16 counts following a six-week trial in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. The jury deliberated for approximately two days before reaching their verdict.

Goldstein was convicted of one count of tax evasion, four counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, four counts of willful failure to timely pay taxes, and three counts of false statements on loan applications.

Federal prosecutors presented evidence that Goldstein failed to pay taxes on millions of dollars in gambling income, diverted funds from his law firm to cover gambling debts, and falsely deducted gambling losses as business expenses on tax filings.

“It was a textbook tax-evasion scheme,” Justice Department prosecutor Sean Beaty told the jury during closing arguments. “And Mr. Goldstein executed that nearly flawlessly.”

The scale of Goldstein’s gambling was staggering. According to court testimony, he won approximately $50 million playing poker in 2016 alone, including roughly $22 million from games in Asia. The prosecution alleged that his tax evasion scheme unraveled when another gambler, who felt cheated by Goldstein, alerted the IRS about a 2016 debt owed to the attorney.

Goldstein’s indictment in early 2023 sent shockwaves through Washington’s legal community, where he was widely respected for his Supreme Court advocacy and for co-founding SCOTUSblog, a website that has become essential reading for those following Supreme Court developments. Many colleagues were stunned to learn of his extensive gambling activities.

“He lied to everyone around him,” Beaty said during the trial.

The case drew additional attention when “Spider-Man” actor Tobey Maguire, known himself as an avid poker player, testified during the trial. Maguire had reportedly enlisted Goldstein’s help in recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire.

Before retiring from Supreme Court practice in 2023, Goldstein had established himself as one of the nation’s premier appellate advocates. His high-profile work included serving on Democrat Al Gore’s legal team during the contentious Supreme Court litigation over the 2000 presidential election, which ultimately resulted in Republican George W. Bush’s victory.

Goldstein’s defense team, led by attorney Jonathan Kravis, argued that prosecutors had rushed to judgment and failed to thoroughly investigate the case. They maintained that Goldstein made “innocent mistakes” on his tax returns but never intentionally cheated on his taxes.

“A mistake is not a crime,” Kravis told jurors.

Goldstein testified in his own defense, denying any wrongdoing and claiming he had instructed his law firm’s staff and accountants to correctly categorize his personal expenses. His defense team presented a 2014 email in which he told a firm employee that “we always play completely by the rules.”

In addition to the tax charges, prosecutors also accused Goldstein of concealing his gambling debts from mortgage lenders. His indictment alleged that he omitted a $15 million gambling debt from mortgage loan applications while house-hunting with his wife in Washington, D.C. in 2021.

Kravis attempted to portray this omission in a sympathetic light, telling jurors, “He was thinking only of his wife when he left off the gambling debts.”

The case highlights the sometimes secretive world of high-stakes poker, where players can win or lose millions in private games. It also serves as a stark reminder that even highly accomplished legal professionals can find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Goldstein now faces potential prison time at sentencing, though a date for that proceeding has not yet been announced. The conviction marks a dramatic fall for an attorney who once regularly appeared before the nine justices of the Supreme Court and whose legal blog continues to be a respected source of information about the court’s activities.