Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said on Monday that he is withdrawing his name from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general.
Schmitt, a Trump backer and former Missouri state attorney general, said in a social media post that he informed Trump’s transition team that he does not want to be considered for the head of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and be a champion for President Trump in the Senate.”
Neither Trump nor members of his transition team have publicly commented about who they might select as attorney general, a role currently held by Merrick Garland.
Anyone who takes the attorney general role under Trump would face the prospect of rolling back or ending criminal cases against the president-elect. Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Garland, brought cases against Trump in Florida and Washington for allegedly illegally retaining classified documents and for illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election, respectively.
A Washington-based federal judge last week vacated pretrial deadlines at the behest of Smith’s office in the election case, while a federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case in July. Smith has appealed the judge’s ruling.
Trump has also promised to pardon certain people who were convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
“Oh, absolutely, I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump said in a panel event at the National Association of Black Journalists in late July. “They were convicted by a very tough system.”
Trump’s nominee would also have to face confirmation in the Senate. Republicans are on track to hold at least 53 seats in the chamber, according to projections from The Associated Press.
“We’ll have hearings on whoever the president appoints as the attorney general of the United States. And I’m looking forward to those discussions and those hearings,” Barrasso said. “I’m looking forward to moving quickly with the majority we have in the Senate to get the president’s Cabinet in place so he can hit the ground running come Jan. 20.”
In the first Trump administration, two attorney generals were confirmed by the Senate: former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and William Barr, who served as the attorney general under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s.
After Sessions left office, Trump appointed two acting attorney generals, Rod Rosenstein and Matthew Whitaker.
Trump then nominated Barr, who was confirmed in February 2019. Barr submitted his resignation in December 2020, weeks after he disputed Trump’s assertions about election fraud during that year’s presidential election.
Following Barr’s departure, Trump named Jeffrey Rosen as acting attorney general. Rosen served in that role until the end of the first Trump administration on Jan. 20, 2021.
Over the past few days, Trump has made several announcements. He nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Trump presidential campaign manager Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, and former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan as his “border czar.”
