“The honor of my career,” Adair Boroughs removed as U.S. Attorney for South Carolina
South Carolina’s top federal law enforcement official has been let go as the new presidential administration plans to appoint new federal prosecutors.
Adair Ford Boroughs will be replaced by her chief deputy, Brook Andrews, who will serve as acting United States Attorney for South Carolina until President Donald Trump appoints someone to fill that position, according to a press release put out by the U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday morning.
When the White House switches political parties, the incoming president traditionally replaces U.S. Attorneys with members of his party. The new U.S. Attorneys must then be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Andrews automatically filled Boroughs’ position under the Vacancies Reform Act.
U.S. Attorneys from states including Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, California and Washington have also been fired or resigned at Trump’s request. Bloomberg News reported that as many as 22 US Attorneys had their government-issued phones and computers deactivated last week, before they received a notice that they were being terminated.
“It has been the honor of my career to return to the Department of Justice and to serve alongside the men and women of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said Boroughs in a statement. “The career men and women of this office work tirelessly day in and day out to meet the Department’s mission — to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights. It has been my honor to support them in this critical and patriotic work however I could for as long as I could. To my colleagues, our law enforcement partners, and our South Carolina community, thank you for trusting me with this work.”
Boroughs was appointed by former President Joe Biden and served for two and a half years.
During her tenure, Boroughs’ office prosecuted gun cases, conducted civil rights investigations into the conditions inside of the Richland and Charleston county jails, and won the nation’s first guilty verdict in a federal hate crime murder trial where the motive was the victim’s transgender identity.
She also won a rare victory in the fight against international scammers with the arrest of Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal. The 24-year-old was extradited from Lagos, Nigeria, and is alleged to have been behind the sexual extortion that led to the suicide of 17-year-old Gavin Guffey, son of a York County state legislator.
But in an interview with The State last month, Boroughs said that one of the of the accomplishments she was most proud of was implementing paid internships at her office.
“I was the kid that can never afford to take an unpaid internship... we were saying that unless you can afford to work for free, you don’t get that opportunity,” Boroughs said. “Paid internships are an issue of fairness to me.”
Boroughs took an unconventional path to the position of U.S. Attorney. Originally from Williston, South Carolina, Boroughs grew up in a double wide trailer and earned a degree in mathematics and a prestigious Truman Scholarship at Furman University. After teaching math in South Carolina public schools for several years, she attended Stanford Law School with the original intention of getting involved in education policy.
But in law school, her interest shifted and she described herself becoming “outraged” with people who cheated the tax system. She worked in the Department of Justice’s elite tax division before returning to South Carolina to clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel, a prominent jurist, where she worked on the trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the massacre of nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Following her clerkship, Boroughs started her own public interest law firm before making an unsuccessful run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson in the 2nd Congressional District.
Andrews first joined the Justice Department in 2009 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, according the press release. Andrews obtained his law degree from the University of South Carolina and clerked for both U.S. District Judge Margaret Seymour of the District of South Carolina, and Chief Justice Jean Toal of the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Before he served as the office’s First Assistant United States Attorney, he was deputy criminal chief over the White Collar and General Crimes Section and district ethics officer for the office.
Speaking to The State in January, Boroughs said that she didn’t know what was next. While she planned to take some time off, she said that she’d never been good at sitting around.
“It won’t take long for me to get bored and want something to do, but I bet I can manage for a month,” Boroughs said.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 12:11 PM.