President Donald Trump said he will nominate William Barr as the next U.S. attorney general, putting an advocate of a strong executive branch in charge of the Justice Department as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation intensifies.
Barr, if confirmed by the Senate, will take over after Jeff Sessions was ousted but the process could take several months.
"Hopefully that process will go very quickly," Trump said Friday at the White House. He, along with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, were traveling to Kansas City, Missouri, for a law enforcement event.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said he knows Barr and he would be “a great pick.