Lorković led the Lorković-Vokić plot, an attempt to establish a coalition government between the Ustaše and the Croatian Peasant Party and align the Independent State of Croatia with the Allies.

As a student, he joined the Croatian Party of Rights but, viewed as a dissident in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, he fled the country to avoid arrest and eventually settled in Germany where he obtained a doctorate in law at the University of Berlin.

After his cabinet chief, Ivo Kolak, was executed in 1943 for smuggling gold, Lorković was removed from office but later named Minister of Interior.

Although he apparently had the support of Pavelić, he and his cohorts were soon arrested as conspirators against the state and after a period in detention was executed at the end of April 1945 alongside Ante Vokić.

[2] Lorković was a keen advocate for the amalgamation of all Croatian parties into a 'super-party' to secede from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia[2] and on 4 October 1934 swore his Ustaše oath.

The assassination of King Alexander led to him being briefly detained in Germany, but was released in mid-1935 after a German court rejected a Yugoslav request for his extradition.

[2] Matica hrvatska published his book, The Croatian People and Their Lands, in 1939 in which he stated that all Bosnian Muslims were Croats by nationality.

[8] Up to April 1943, he also served as the chief contact between Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, the Plenipotentiary General in the Independent State of Croatia, and the Pavelić cabinet.

Shortly after taking office, he inquired with the French authorities about the fate of three Ustaše implicated in the 1934 assassination of King Alexander in Marseilles and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Two of the men died in prison, but the third, Milan Rajić, was returned to the NDH in early 1942 through the intervention of the German occupation forces in France, where he was later killed allegedly on Pavelić's orders.

[14] Lorković, along with Vladimir Košak and Stijepo Perić, strongly opposed Italian influence over the Independent State of Croatia[15] and towards the end of 1942, wrote a note ("Spomenica") in which he described the cooperative efforts of Italy's 2nd Army with the Chetniks.

[16] Himmler and Phleps largely prevailed and created the division as they saw fit causing grave dissatisfaction among the NDH leadership, particularly regarding its ethnic composition.

[8] Following his removal, Lorković was named a Minister in Government's Presidency, where he was responsible for relations with the German Army, and become a close associate of General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau.

[8] After the capitulation of Italy on 20 September 1943, Lorković, with Kasche and other high-ranking German officers, discussed the return of territory lost after the Treaty of Rome in April 1941.

[8][23] In May 1944, he secretly met with the president of Knin County, David Sinčić, with whom he discussed the poor state of the German war-effort and that the Allies may invade the Balkans via Taranto.

[26] At a special session of government held on 30 August 1944 in Pavelić's villa, guarded by armed men,[28] Lorković and Vokić were accused of conspiracy against the Poglavnik and Croatia's German ally.

Two of his speeches were independently published: The International Political Position of Croatia (Međunarodni politički položaj Hrvatske; 1942) and The Croatian Struggle Against Bolshevism (Hrvatska u borbi protiv boljševizma; 1944).