Eric Schmitt has been a critic of the Justice Department. Could he end up leading it?

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Sen. Eric Schmitt has accused the Justice Department of launching politically motivated lawsuits against former President Donald Trump. He’s claimed the department is targeting conservatives. He’s said the FBI is going after Catholics.

And if Trump wins the presidential election in November, the Missouri Republican could end up in charge of them.

Schmitt, 49, is on the short list to serve as the next U.S. Attorney General in a Trump administration – a potential culmination of a swift political rise in just eight years from Missouri state senator to the country’s top law enforcement official.

“I think it makes sense from President Trump’s perspective because he brings together a lot of assets and capabilities that the President really values,” said Gregg Keller, a Republican consultant and former Schmitt adviser.

“He is a populist conservative who is America first, who’s a proven Attorney General, who’s young, and I think almost as importantly as any of those things, is just that Schmitt is tremendous as a communicator.”

Schmitt has increasingly been asked to bolster Trump’s campaign over the past year, from helping Trump prepare for his June debate against Biden to trashing the president on Fox News.

His fierce defense of Trump is already being rewarded – the Missouri senator is slated to address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night.

Trump still faces one federal case related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Justice Department plans to appeal a judge’s dismissal of a case regarding Trump’s handling of classified documents after he left office.

Schmitt has suggested that those cases are politically motivated and ought to be dismissed. If he was confirmed as Attorney General, Schmitt would be in a position to either stop pursuing the cases or fire Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The Trump campaign did not respond when asked whether Schmitt was being considered for Attorney General or about why he’s been chosen as a surrogate.

And Schmitt demurred whether he was seeking a role in the Trump administration.

“I’m just trying to help the cause,” Schmitt said. “That’s my honest answer. I’m trying to help President Trump win.”

A rapid rise

Trump wasn’t sure about Eric Schmitt at first.

On the morning of the Republican primary in Missouri for U.S. Senate in 2022, Trump couldn’t decide whether he should support Eric Schmitt, the Missouri Attorney General, or Eric Greitens, the former governor chased out of office amid a bevy of scandals.

So Trump didn’t. Instead, he avoided picking sides and backed “Eric.”

The endorsement helped anyway. Schmitt quickly claimed it was about his campaign – not Greitens – and coasted to victory in the primary and later the general election.

It was his third elected office in just six years. When Trump rode down the escalator to launch his first bid for President, Schmitt was still serving in the Missouri Senate.

He was elected Missouri Treasurer in 2016, then appointed as Missouri Attorney General to replace Sen. Josh Hawley. He was elected Missouri Attorney General in 2020.

Schmitt spent just two years as Attorney General but in that time he filed 25 lawsuits against the Biden administration.

Jean Evans, a former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, said Schmitt has risen so quickly because he comes across as authentic – someone who is easily able to build political relationships.

“I think it’s really helpful in politics in general,” Evans said. “Whether you’re talking about with the press or with your colleagues or with other members of the party if you’re somebody who keeps your word and consistently follows through on things people gain respect for you.”

Schmitt’s short time in Washington has been defined more by the cases he launched against the Biden administration from his old job than it has by his legislation, where he’s struggled to move bills as a low-ranking Republican in a Democratic-controlled chamber.

But he also has settled in on a message – his desire to get rid of the federal bureaucracy he calls the “administrative state” – and repeatedly hounded it in speeches, on conservative news channels and in bills he’s introduced with Republican colleagues.

“He is effectively communicating both on the policy side and the political side in a way that has a really positive impact for the whole party,” Evans said. “Obviously, people in the Trump campaign have taken notice of that and are relying on him to help them communicate Republican messages.”

Schmitt is among a growing group of hard-line conservatives in the Senate, who have pushed an ideology that’s more aligned with Trump’s vision of the Republican Party than the vision espoused by conservatives like Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

He voted against nearly every one of Biden’s judicial nominees and was part of the group that helped block President Joe Biden’s bipartisan border agreement.

Over the course of the year, Schmitt’s been a more frequent surrogate than some of the more high-profile lawmakers – including his Senate colleague from Missouri, Sen. Josh Hawley.

Schmitt helped brief Trump before the debate, alongside Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who was on Trump’s short list for vice president and ran for president himself in 2016. He was a surrogate for Trump in Atlanta following the debate between Trump and Biden, alongside Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican who Trump selected as his vice presidential candidate.

Hawley is more well-known nationally, but he isn’t speaking at the RNC and said he doesn’t want a role in a Trump administration. He criticized the Republican National Committee last week for softening language on abortion restrictions and same-sex marriage.

“I’m running for reelection for the job I currently have,” Hawley said. “And I’m serious about that. I want that job. I don’t want a different job. I believe Trump’s gonna be reelected and I think he’ll choose great people to be in the cabinet. I will not be among them.”

A willing fighter

It is still early in the campaign to talk about potential cabinet positions. While Trump is leading in the polls, elections analysts still widely view the race as a toss-up.

But as Biden has spent the past two weeks tamping down calls for him to step aside as the Democratic nominee and Republicans appear united, particularly after a failed assassination attempt against Trump.

Trump has dismissed conversations about what his administration would look like. Earlier this month he tried to distance himself from Project 2025, a policy platform spearheaded by conservatives who served in his first administration and spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

That hasn’t stopped Schmitt’s allies from considering what a role in the Trump administration could mean for his rising career.

“If you’re Trump and you’re really serious, really serious about taking on the deep state, and I believe that he is, you want to put someone in the AG position, who not only says the right things but has shown that they will do those hard things,” Keller said. “And Eric Schmitt did all of those hard and difficult things while he was attorney general. He has a work product here that is verifiable.”

Schmitt, who traveled to New York to support Trump during his hush-money case, has been a frequent critic of the Justice Department under the Biden administration. He said the department has become too politicized and is being used to attack conservatives – from Trump to Catholics who gravitate toward traditional Latin masses.

Schmitt has also gone after several Biden administration policies. His decision to join a lawsuit against Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan helped prevent the White House from forgiving the student loan debt of up to 40 million Americans.

And his lawsuit claiming the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by asking social media companies to take down certain social media posts – while dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of standing – provided fodder for conservatives who are critical of efforts to moderate speech on social media platforms.

But Keller, who considers Schmitt a friend, cautioned that Schmitt wouldn’t have an easy decision. The Trump administration was notorious for its high turnover and the Attorney General’s office has become a lightning rod for controversy.

In the past two decades, two attorneys general have been held in contempt of Congress and the House nearly held Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over audio of an interview President Joe Biden had with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

“I think that taking the attorney general position if he’s offered it, is a high risk, high reward thing,” Keller said. “He will be an even larger national star than he already is. But again, you’re going to have to take on a lot of very difficult, very high profile fights, and that job is a meat grinder. And I’m not sure that I would, I wouldn’t wish it on many people.”