By Nate Raymond

May 20 (Reuters) - A Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer who was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as a federal appeals court judge after serving as his personal attorney vowed on Wednesday to "rule without fear or favor" and to recuse himself from cases in which he represented the Republican leader.

Matthew Schwartz, Trump's nominee for the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not know how much money Trump owes his law firm for representing him in two appeals, including his 2024 hush money-related criminal conviction.

Noting that Trump's Save America PAC reported in April that it owed Sullivan & Cromwell nearly $400,000, Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey pressed Schwartz to disclose any financial obligations Trump had to the judicial nominee.

Schwartz responded that he had "no idea" how much the Wall Street law firm was owed for its work for Trump, which also includes representing Trump in his appeal to the New ‌York Court ⁠of Appeals in the civil fraud case brought by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"My firm has revenues of almost $2 billion a year," Schwartz told Booker. "The amount that we take in or might take in from President Trump, I don't know how much that is but it would be an extraordinarily small amount."

But Schwartz, who reported earning $7.36 million last year as a partner at the law firm, stressed that if the Republican-led Senate confirms him to the bench he would recuse himself from the cases and no longer earn any money from them.

Trump has nominated three of his personal attorneys to serve as federal appeals court judges since his return to the White House last year, leading to concerns by Senate Democrats about their loyalty to the man who is appointing them.

The Senate in July confirmed one, Emil Bove, to a seat on the ⁠Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and is currently considering the nomination of another, Justin Smith, to the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Schwartz appeared before the panel on Wednesday alongside Benjamin Flowers, a former Ohio solicitor general whom Trump has nominated to join the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Flowers faced repeated questions about his views on statements he had made favoring conservative legal causes.

During the hearing, Schwartz described himself as a follower of the legal doctrines of originalism and textualism favored by legal conservatives and called conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice ​Samuel Alito, for whom he clerked, his mentor.

Senator Dick Durbin, the panel's top Democrat, pressed Schwartz on why he should be trusted "to place the Constitution and your professional obligations ahead of your personal loyalty to the president?"

Schwartz in response said he will "commit to you that if I'm confirmed and take the oath of office to be impartial and to rule without fear or favor, that will be an oath that I will take extraordinarily seriously and will not violate if I'm put on the 2nd Circuit."

Read more:

Trump nominates former Ohio solicitor general, Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer to US appeals courts