President Donald Trump is nominating Matthew Schwartz, a Sullivan & Cromwell partner representing him in court, to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Schwartz is working on Trump’s appeal of his New York state conviction for hiding a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump announced the nomination through a social media post on Friday, saying Schwartz “has fought fiercely against Lawfare and Government Overreach” but didn’t mention his own case.
Schwartz is also part of the legal team seeking to move the underlying criminal case from a New York state court to a federal one. There, Trump could argue he’s immune from the charges under the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling finding immunity for presidential acts. US District Judge Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein heard arguments in that case in February and hasn’t issued a decision.
Schwartz was also listed on a new Trump appeal just this week, as the president seeks to throw out a judge’s finding that he’s liable for inflating the value of his real estate assets.
This is the latest instance of Trump turning to his own legal team to fill the federal courts. He tapped his former personal attorneys who worked on the hush money case, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, for top DOJ roles. He later appointed Bove to the Third Circuit. Blanche is now acting attorney general.
Trump’s since nominated to the Eighth Circuit his personal attorney Justin Smith, who’s been representing Trump at the Supreme Court in seeking to overturn a sexual abuse and defamation judgment handed down in a civil lawsuit from writer E. Jean Carroll.
Schwartz’s other clients have included Tesla Inc., Barclays, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 2003.
If confirmed, Schwartz will be Trump’s sixth appointee to the New York-based federal appeals court.
Trump also announced this week that he’s nominating former Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers to a seat on the Sixth Circuit.
