Andrew McCabe, a 20 year FBI veteran, was, by law, named acting FBI director and sworn in at about 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

McCabe's move up to acting FBI director came just hours after President Trump, acting on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein, fired former FBI Director James Comey.

Sessions made the announcement of McCabe's new position in an internal memo sent to FBI employees, where he thanked them for "your steadfast dedication and commitment during this time of transition."

A Duke graduate, McCabe is a career lawyer who joined the FBI's New York Field Office in 1996. Throughout his career, McCabe has held leadership positions in the Counterterrorism Division, the National Security Branch and the Washington Field Office.

Comey promoted McCabe to FBI deputy director in January 2016 to oversee the agency's international investigative and intelligence activities.

"Andy's 19 years of experience, combined with his vision, judgment, and ability to communicate make him a perfect fit for this job," Comey said at the time.

McCabe has not been without controversey, however.

His wife Jill McCabe ran for a Virginia State Senate seat as a Democrat in 2015, during when she received nearly $500,000 in campaign donations from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — a close Clinton family ally.

Because of this, Republicans have criticized McCabe for not recusing himself from the Department of Justice's broad investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. In questioning his independence, Republicans have also wondered why he has not recused himself from the probe into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election.

At the time, in October 2016, the FBI told the Wall Street Journal that McCabe sought internal guidance "to prevent against any actual or potential conflict-of-interest" and when his wife chose to run, "McCabe and FBI lawyers implemented a system of recusal from all FBI investigative matters involving Virginia politics, a process followed for the remainder of her campaign. During the campaign, he played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind."

More recently, both Comey and McCabe may have violated multiple DOJ rules when they spoke with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus about their Russia probe.

According to February reports, Priebus asks the two to publicly refute a New York Times story and a CNN story about Trump's associates' contacts with Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign.

The FBI refused to knock down the media reports, but the White House told CNN the request was made "only after the FBI indicated to the White House it did not believe the reporting to be accurate."

According to NBC News, McCabe is not expected to be in the role for very long. He met with Trump for only about 30 minutes in the Oval Office on Tuesday. However, for the time being, McCabe is in charge of the Russia-Trump probe.