Updated at 1:33 p.m. ET

President Trump said Friday that he intends to nominate William Barr, a prominent Republican lawyer and former attorney general, to return and lead the Justice Department.

Barr, who served as George H.W. Bush's attorney general from 1991 to 1993, holds sweeping views of executive power and hard-line positions on criminal justice issues.

"He was my first choice from Day 1," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "I think he will serve with great distinction."

Friday is shaping up as a busy day in the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

Special counsel Robert Mueller faces deadlines in two federal courts in cases involving two former Trump insiders, a former FBI director treks up to Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview, and a onetime Trump campaign adviser gets out of prison.

Here's a quick breakdown of what's on tap for the day:

Mueller's office to detail Paul Manafort's alleged lies

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found a new way to make sustainable fuel out of sunlight.

The process is an artificial form of photosynthesis – where plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into energy.

Here, researchers combined cobalt and urea – both cheap and abundant – to make a yellow material that absorbs sunlight.

That lets the material reduce carbon dioxide from the air into component parts that can be stored as a combustible liquid fuel.