Biden nominates Adair Ford Boroughs to be SC’s next US attorney

Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs, who ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2020 for the U.S. House and whose resume includes work at the Department of Justice, has been nominated by President Joe Biden to become the next U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

Boroughs is one of five U.S. attorneys nominees announced by the White House late Monday. Biden also announced two U.S. Marshal nominees. Laurens Police Department Chief Chrissie Latimore has been nominated to be South Carolina’s next U.S. Marshal.

Boroughs, 41, has a lengthy academic and legal pedigree, graduating from Furman University in 2002 with honors, spending a stint as a public school teacher and graduating from Stanford Law School in 2007.

She also served as a law clerk for approximately three years for U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel. She was clerk for Gergel in 2014, when he struck down the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

She is a native of Williston in Barnwell County.

“I am honored and humbled by the President’s nomination to be U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina. Should I be confirmed, it will be a professional homecoming that I hold dear,” Boroughs said in a statement Monday.

In 2020, Boroughs ran on the Democratic ticket against longtime U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale, but lost, getting 42% of the vote to Wilson’s 55%.

In that race, Boroughs managed to outspend Wilson, $2.6 million to $2 million, but she was fighting history. No Democrat has been elected to Congress for years from the conservative 2nd Congressional District, which stretches from Columbia to Aiken and includes parts of Lexington County.

Most recently, Boroughs formed a Columbia law firm called Boroughs Bryant. Her partner there is Christopher Bryant, also a former law clerk for U.S. Judge Richard Gergel.

The firm advertises itself as “Counsel for South Carolina’s leaders and lawyers.”

“We roll up our sleeves and dive into the tough, thorny issues to make your experience as straightforward as possible,” the firm says.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate for U.S. attorney, Boroughs can be expected to bring some stability to the office, which hasn’t had a politically appointed U.S. attorney since February 2021, when former state Rep. Peter McCoy stepped down after Biden took office. McCoy was appointed U.S. attorney by former President Donald Trump.

Since then, the office has had two career federal prosecutors — Rhett DeHart and Corey Ellis — who have served as interim U.S. attorneys for the state. Ellis, appointed in December, is the current interim U.S. attorney and is expected to stay until Boroughs officially gets the job.

Trump’s first appointee to be U.S. attorney was Sherri Lydon, who served from May 2018 to December 2019.

Historically, the post of U.S. attorney is a stepping stone.

Lydon is now a federal district judge. McCoy is now chairman of the board of Santee Cooper, the state-run electric utility.

The U.S. attorney for South Carolina is the chief federal law enforcement officer responsible for federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States in the state.

Currently, the office is investigating financial crimes associated with suspended Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh and his relationship with the Palmetto State Bank. And the office is prosecuting a top Westinghouse official alleged to have helped former S.C. utility SCANA engage in a cover-up of work failures and cost overruns at the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project in Fairfield County.

If confirmed, Boroughs will oversee an office of approximately 62 assistant U.S. attorneys, 75 support staff, and 18 contract support staff, all of whom are responsible for prosecuting federal crimes affecting the district.

Those crimes include narcotics and firearms cases, gang violence, human trafficking, white-collar crime, tax fraud, securities fraud, public corruption, terrorism and civil rights violations. The office also defends the United States in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.

“The Department of Justice is where I started my legal career and the organization with which I have worked the longest,” Boroughs continued in her statement. “To be able to further the Department’s work in my home state of South Carolina and to work with the incredible people at the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be a privilege and an honor. I want to thank the President and his team for their faith in my work and for the opportunity to serve. I look forward to the Senate confirmation process.”

This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 5:35 PM.