The new acting attorney general is an Obama appointee from Virginia

Dana Boente.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The spotlight is hot on Dana Boente, the new acting attorney general of the United States.

Before Monday night, most people had never heard of Boente, 62, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was sworn in at 9 p.m. ET, a White House senior assistant press secretary told NBC News, just a few hours after former acting Attorney General Sally Yates told lawyers in the Department of Justice not to defend President Trump's executive order on immigration. Her firing was announced on Twitter by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and the White House quickly went on a tear denouncing Yates, accusing her of being "very weak" on borders.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.