After a career spent behind the scenes, Joseph Maguire was thrust on center stage this week thanks to his part in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

The acting director of national intelligence was grilled publicly for hours by the House Intelligence Committee Thursday over what he called the "unprecedented" situation of a whistleblower complaint about the U.S. president that was initially withheld from Congress by the administration.

President Donald Trump named Maguire, who was running the National Counterterrorism Center, as his acting intelligence director on Aug. 8 — four days before the whistle-blower filed his complaint.