The government claims that Goldstein, who owed a significant poker debt to Safai, never reported the payment on his tax filings.

But instead of paying Goldstein's firm directly for the work after he got Beal to pay, Maguire said he was asked to pay real estate magnate Bob Safai the $500,000 fee instead.

According to Maguire, he knew Goldstein from running in the same poker circles. After Maguire won over $15 million from billionaire banker Andy Beal in 2019 and Beal refused to pay, he hired Goldstein to go after the money.

Tobey Maguire appeared in Maryland federal court today to testify in SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial, telling the jury that Goldstein directed him to pay one of Goldstein's poker debtors for legal work Goldstein did, rather than pay his firm.

Now, prosecutors are looking to get Toobin and/or fact-checker Rudy Lee to testify regarding what Goldstein said. On Tuesday, while the trial was on a weather pause, they called the subpoenas a "serious intrusion" that "whill chill future journalism."

https://t.co/Q3Gu3yIjhZ

According to the story, Goldstein admitted to leaving out some debts on mortgage forms. In addition to the tax charges, Goldstein is on trial for making false statements on mortgage apps. The govt had tried to pre-admit parts of that article as evidence, but that was denied.

Toobin, with Goldstein's participation, wrote a lengthy NYT Mag story on his saga weeks before trial started.

Interesting development in SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's ongoing tax fraud trial: Jeffrey Toobin and a NYT fact-checker are asking the judge to block a DOJ subpoena that would compel them to testify:

Lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said Monday that Abrego Garcia would have left the country for Costa Rica months ago if he was allowed to, but that the government was willing "to do whatever it takes" to put him "back in a detention center."

"Once again I'm making a finding that these representations, which are misrepresentations, are in bad faith," she told Ernesto Molina of the DOJ. "You cannot do that."

Xinis also blasted DOJ attorneys for saying in a filing that her emergency TRO was issued on an ex parte basis. The gov't attorney arguing today agreed that the filing was inaccurate, yet he and others signed it.

NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia will stay free at least through Christmas, as Judge Paula Xinis said she would keep her restraining order barring his detention in place until she gets a full explanation of the government's claimed authority to redetain him.

BREAKING — U.S. Judge Paula Xinis orders the Trump administration to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody immediately.

NEW: Rep. Eric Swalwell is suing Trump housing director Bill Pulte in D.C. federal court, claiming Pulte accessed private mortgage records to refer him for criminal prosecution as retrubtion for Swalwell's criticism of Trump.

*co counsel

According to Halligan and her voice counsel, changes were made to the draft indictment that was voted on by the full GJ to "reflect" the way the grand jury voted, but the edited version was then never presented to the full GJ. Comey's attorney said it was grounds for dismissal.

BREAKING: US Atty. Lindsey Halligan acknowledged in court Wednesday that the full James Comey grand jury never saw or voted on the final indictment that was handed up to the court back in September. The clarification came after several questions from the judge hearing the case.

Federal judge offers 11 findings to justify giving James Comey access to grand jury materials, including “ facts establish a reasonable basis for the defense to challenge whether privileged information was used, directly or indirectly, by the government to prepare and present its

ALERT: Federal judge orders James Comey defense team can have access to grand jury materials in Comey case: “The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of