4 discussed for US attorney in South Carolina, but Lowcountry lawmaker has the edge
Four people are being talked about as possible nominees for the prestigious U.S. attorney’s post in South Carolina, but a Lowcountry lawmaker has the edge.
The four are S.C. Department of Corrections director Bryan Stirling, Columbia attorney Sherri Lydon, deputy S.C. attorney general Robert Bolchoz and state Rep. Peter McCoy, R-Charleston.
Of the four, McCoy, 38, a four-term House of Representatives incumbent, is said to have the best chance at this point of being nominated for the $154,000-a-year post, both because of his credentials and his political ties to President Trump, according to sources in the case.
“The nomination is Peter’s to lose,” one source said last week. “He would have to fail a background check or something.”
As president, Trump makes the final selection on who to nominate. It is then up to the U.S. Senate to confirm the nominee as background checks and other vetting takes place.
Ordinarily, the senior U.S. senator in a state has a big say-so in whom a president nominates for the U.S. attorney’s post.
South Carolina’s senior senator, Lindsey Graham, was not only a Trump opponent in the GOP primary but has taken high-profile stands against Trump on several contentious political points. At one time in 2015, Graham called Trump a “jackass,” angering then-candidate Trump so much that Trump revealed Graham’s private cell phone number during a press conference.
Graham’s office had no comment about who might fill the job. The office of S.C. senator Tim Scott did not provide a reply.
Of the four contenders, McCoy is the only one who was an early Trump supporter in a state where many Republicans were backing native son Graham or other more traditional GOP presidential candidates. McCoy also is friends with Ed McMullen, a South Carolina political operative who joined Trump’s campaign early on and went the distance.
McCoy’s professional credentials include a five-year stint as assistant prosecutor with the 9th Judicial Circuit solicitor’s office and being current chair of a key S.C. House Judiciary Committee subcomittee.
Former U.S. attorney Bart Daniel, now a prominent Charleston attorney, says McCoy has the right stuff to be U.S. attorney and he supports his candidacy. McCoy has qualities of persistence, integrity and experience that would serve him well in the job, Daniel said.
McCoy said last week he had heard his name being mentioned as a possible candidate, but he knew no specifics.
“I know there are a lot of good folks that are being considered as well. It’s an honor to be considered in that group that people are talking about,” McCoy said.
Then-Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster, nationally the first public official elected statewide to support Trump when Trump’s candidacy was a longshot, is said to have a say in Trump’s final choice. Sources said now-Gov. McMaster has told Trump he supports McCoy.
McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes would only say, “The governor has met with a number of great South Carolinians who are eager to work in President Trump’s administration, and he will continue to do so.”
The others being discussed are:
▪ Stirling, 47, a lawyer and state corrections chief. Asked for comment, Stirling had little to say except, “I’m focused on running the largest law enforcement agency in the state.” The corrections department has close to 3,000 guards who are certified law enforcement officers.
Stirling also has a long association with McMaster. He worked with McMaster in McMaster’s private law firm in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then was a top deputy attorney general to McMaster during McMaster’s second term as S.C. attorney general.
▪ Lydon, 55, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute cases connected to the Lost Trust public corruption probe of the S.C. Legislature in the 1990s. She also also served under McMaster, when McMaster was attorney general, as chief prosecutor for the State Grand Jury.
“I’m honored to be under consideration for the position, and I would love the opportunity to serve,” Lydon said. If appointed, Lydon would be the first female U.S. attorney in South Carolina. (Current U.S. attorney for South Carolina Beth Drake is serving in an interim basis, since she is a government employee who replaced presidential nominee Bill Nettles when Nettles resigned last year.)
▪ Bolochoz, 53, a former assistant solicitor in Charleston County. Bolchoz is the current chief deputy attorney general under S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson and served in the same capacity from 1995 to 1998 under then-Attorney General Charlie Condon. Bolchoz could not be reached for comment.
Bolchoz ran unsuccessfully against Wilson for attorney general during the Republican primary in 2010 and ran for Columbia City Council in 2012.
The U.S. attorney’s office in South Carolina, though small, plays a vital role in state crime-fighting. Its main office is in Columbia, but it also has offices in Greenville, Charleston and Florence.
About three-quarters of its lawyers are criminal prosecutors and work with the alphabet soup of federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA, IRS, ICE, the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service. They target a wide range of crimes, including public corruption, civil rights, terrorism, identity theft, postal fraud, illegal immigration, drug trafficking and all kinds of federal fraud violations.
In recent years, cases prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office have included the state’s highest profile crimes: the public corruption conviction of former Lexington County Sheriff James Metts, the public corruption case of former S.C. State University board chair Jonathan Pinson and the death penalty case against Charleston church killer Dylann Roof.
For decades, those who have served as U.S. attorney have usually gone on to successful careers in politics or law.
Serving in past years, in addition to McMaster and Daniel, have been attorney Pete Strom of Columbia, Upstate solicitor Walter Wilkins of Greenville and attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. of Aiken. Recently retired U.S. attorney Bill Nettles has returned to private law practice.
This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 3:45 PM with the headline "4 discussed for US attorney in South Carolina, but Lowcountry lawmaker has the edge."