Written by Skylar Laird, SC Daily Gazette.
South Carolina’s U.S. attorney has been fired by President Donald Trump’s administration, her former office announced Tuesday.
Adair Ford Boroughs has been the state’s lead federal prosecutor since July 2022, a month after then-President Joe Biden nominated her. Brook Andrews, Boroughs’ assistant attorney, is acting U.S. attorney until Trump nominates a replacement, according to a recent news release.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has about 140 employees, is responsible for federal criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits involving the state.
It is normal for incoming presidents to replace U.S. attorneys appointed by their predecessor. In February 2021, then-U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy, a former GOP state legislator, officially resigned from the post he’d held for about a year after the Biden administration asked him and other U.S. attorneys to step down.
Andrews has worked for the Department of Justice since 2009, including as a district ethics officer and in the division prosecuting white collar and general crimes. Before joining the Department of Justice, Andrews clerked for several judges, including former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal. He is originally from Columbia, according to his online bio.
Boroughs, after just over 2 1/2 years, is the longest-serving presidential appointee in the office since Bill Nettles left the role in 2016, six years after President Barack Obama picked him. Sherri Lydon, who succeeded Nettles, was in the position for less than two years, and Peter McCoy stepped down eight months after his confirmation in June 2020.
During her time in office, Boroughs focused her efforts on enforcing federal civil rights laws. Her office secured convictions in five federal hate crimes cases, including the first for a hate crime committed because of a person’s gender identity, for the 2019 killing of a transgender woman.
Boroughs’ office opened investigations into jails in Richland and Charleston counties over allegations of unsafe conditions. A report on the Richland County jail found that violence, sexual abuse and contraband are commonplace, likely violating detainees’ constitutional rights to avoid harm. The Charleston County investigation remains ongoing.
As part of an effort to crack down on human trafficking and child exploitation, Boroughs oversaw the extradition of a Nigerian man to charge him with involvement in a sextortion scam that led to the death of 17-year-old Gavin Guffey, son of Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill.
Boroughs called it “the honor of my career” to serve in the position, commending the work of the attorneys she oversaw in a statement. She did not say where she might go next.
“It has been my honor to support them in this critical and patriotic work however I could for as long as I could,” Boroughs said in a statement. “To my colleagues, our law enforcement partners and our South Carolina community, thank you for trusting me with this work.”
Boroughs was a high school math teacher before working in the Department of Justice’s tax division in Washington, D.C., from 2007 to 2013. She returned to South Carolina in 2013, where she was a law clerk for about four years before becoming a partner at the law firm Boroughs Bryant, LLC.
Boroughs ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson in South Carolina’s 2nd District in 2020. She launched her long-shot bid against the longtime Republican incumbent in 2019 from the football field of her alma mater, Williston-Elko High School, where she graduated valedictorian.
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