Adair Ford Boroughs confirmed as SC’s next US attorney after Senate vote
Former Democratic congressional candidate Adair Ford Boroughs is now set to be the next U.S. attorney in South Carolina.
The Senate approved her nomination by a voice vote on Thursday to make the attorney the highest federal prosecutor in the state.
Boroughs tweeted after the vote.
“I’m very excited to return to (the) DOJ and to work with an incredible team at the U.S. Attorney’s office.”
Before taking office, Boroughs must be officially sworn in. That is expected to happen in the near future.
Nominated by President Joe Biden on June 6 for the position, the 42-year old Barnwell County native will take her established academic and legal background to court to prosecute federal crimes in the district.
Boroughs graduated from Furman University in 2002 with honors and earned a law degree from Stanford University Law School in 2007. She has worked as a public school math teacher and clerked from 2013 to 2017 for Richard Gergel, a U.S. district judge based in Charleston. She clerked for Gergel when he struck down the state’s constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage and handled the trial of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.
She also spent six years as a trial attorney in the tax division of the U.S. Department of Justice, from 2007 to 2013.
In 2020, she ran a competitive but unsuccessful Democratic campaign for Congress against longtime U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale. Most recently, she started a Columbia law firm, Boroughs Bryant. The firm officially closed on July 15.
Her appointment ends a period of interim leadership for the office that dates back to February 2021 after former state Rep. Peter McCoy, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, resigned when Biden took office.
Corey Ellis has been the interim U.S. attorney since December.
The U.S. attorney for South Carolina is the chief federal law enforcement officer responsible for federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the U.S. in the state.
Boroughs will work with agents from the FBI, Secret Service, IRS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute everything from narcotics and human trafficking to white-collar crime, terrorism and civil rights violations. The office also defends the U.S. in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.
The office has approximately 62 assistant U.S. attorneys, 75 support staff and 18 contract support staff. Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s office are headquartered in Columbia, with satellite offices in Charleston, Greenville and Florence.
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 4:29 PM.