Kehoe announced the pick less than a day after Bailey said he would resign next month to serve as co-deputy director of the FBI.

Bailey, appointed in 2022 by former Gov. Mike Parson, is the third Missouri Attorney General in six years to leave for a position in Washington, D.C.

The move appears to diminish the authority of the current deputy director, Dan Bongino, whose tumultuous tenure has included a pitched argument over files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.