Senate panel to consider Adair Ford Boroughs on July 14 for SC’s next US attorney

The nomination of Adair Ford Boroughs, President Joe Biden’s choice for U.S. attorney of South Carolina, will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

The 9 a.m. hearing is a necessary step on Burroughs’ journey to be confirmed by the full U.S. Senate.

Boroughs, 42, who ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2020 for the U.S. House and whose resume includes work at the Department of Justice, was nominated by Biden in June to become South Carolina’s next U.S. attorney.

“It won’t be a hearing. It’s just a discussion and vote,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond law school who specializes in the federal judiciary and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Boroughs likely won’t have to appear before the senators, and the vote is expected to be in her favor, Tobias said.

“This is a signal that they’ve done an investigation on her and there’s no controversy, no red flags,” Tobias said. “Sometimes a couple of the senators vote no, just because they oppose anybody Biden nominates.”

Having her nomination come before the committee also likely means that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has signed off on Boroughs favorably, Tobias said. Home state senators have a big say in whether a nominee can get through a committee.

Boroughs has a lengthy academic and legal pedigree, graduating from Furman University in 2002 with honors. She also spent a stint as a public school teacher and graduated 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 clerked for Gergel in 2014, when he struck down the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

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. Its prosecutors work with agents from the FBI, Secret Service, IRS, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies.

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 in 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 U.S. in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.

Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s office are headquartered in Columbia, with satellite offices in Charleston, Greenville and Florence.