SCOTUSBlog Acquired by The Dispatch — As Co-Founder Is Mired in Wild Tax Evasion, Gambling Scandal
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File
The popular Supreme Court news site SCOTUSblog has been acquired by The Dispatch, with co-founder Amy Howe joining the conservative online media outlet — several months after the other co-founder was reported to be entangled in a tax evasion and gambling scandal.
Back in January, SCOTUSblog publisher and co-founder Tom Goldstein — a veteran practitioner before the nation’s highest court himself — was indicted for tax evasion related to a stunning series of alleged schemes to use funds from his law firm to cover millions of dollars of gambling debts. The accusations against Goldstein included years of high-stakes gambling on poker games, allegedly using millions of dollars in funds from his law firm “to cover gambling debts and other personal debts,” creating fake employment arrangements for several women with whom he had personal relationships, and “falsely understat[ing] his gambling winnings by millions of dollars in tax filings.”
Through his legal counsel, Goldstein denied any wrongdoing and declared his intention to “vigorously contest these charges at trial.”
On Wednesday, CEO and co-founder Stephen Hayes published a post announcing the acquisition of SCOTUSblog and welcoming Howe to The Dispatch team.
Hayes described SCOTUSblog as “the gold standard for Supreme Court coverage for more than two decades,” and vowed that The Dispatch would “invest in Amy, her team, and additional staff to ensure that SCOTUSblog remains the go-to authority on the Supreme Court.”
Howe wrote her own post at SCOTUSBlog about the acquisition, thanking readers who had supported the site since its founding in 2002 and as it had “evolved into a resource on all things related to the Supreme Court, from soup-to-nuts coverage of the cases argued at the court to retirements, confirmations, and other special features.”
The partnership with The Dispatch, Howe continued, would allow SCOTUSblog to reverse the scaled-back coverage of recent years and “restore SCOTUSblog’s publishing capabilities, including expanded analysis for all merits cases and oral arguments.” She concluded by voicing her support for The Dispatch president Michael Rothman’s goal of the company becoming “the definitive source for legal news and analysis in the United States,” writing that she was “thrilled to be part of that effort and grateful for The Dispatch’s faith in SCOTUSblog.”
