The long-time director of South Carolina's prison system is expected to become interim U.S. Attorney for South Carolina next week, according to multiple sources.
Bryan Stirling, who has led S.C. Department of Corrections since 2014, will start in the new role April 28, sources said. Stirling would replace Adair Ford Boroughs as the chief federal law enforcement official in the state. Ford Boroughs had been appointed and confirmed under former President Joe Biden.
Stirling earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1996 and later served as deputy attorney general for six years.
His 120-day appointment via federal law by President Donald Trump's Department of Justice would later require formal nomination and confirmation by the U.S. Senate to make him U.S. attorney for the state. He is expected to be formally nominated, sources said.
It is customary for U.S. attorneys, which are politically appointed positions, to leave their posts when a new president from another party takes office. Brook Andrews, the office's first assistant U.S. Attorney, has served in acting capacity since Ford Boroughs was terminated in February by the Trump administration. Gov. Henry McMaster said Stirling was being considered for the job in public remarks on Feb. 18, according to a video by WIS-TV in Columbia.
Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters that he hadn't seen any official statement on Stirling's appointment, but described him as an "excellent public servant."
"I would not be surprised if there are a lot of people looking to put him to work in some other position," he said.
Chrysti Shain, SCDC spokeswoman, said Stirling would not be commenting.
The U.S. Attorney's Office works with federal agencies and local law enforcement across the state to investigate and prosecute federal crimes, such as hate crimes, gun and gang crimes, political corruption and immigration. The office also employs attorneys in its civil division to defend the federal government in lawsuits and to investigate civil rights abuses.
The office is investigating a corruption scandal in North Charleston, which saw the resignation of council members and the charging of eight people and was first detailed in a story by The Post and Courier. A federal civil rights investigation into the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County is still pending, which includes the provision medical and mental health care and use of solitary confinement.
Stirling, who was once former Gov. Nikki Haley's chief of staff, has led a state agency with more than 4,000 employees and some 16,000 inmates in 21 prisons. During his tenure, the U.S. Attorney's Office recognized his contributions to state law enforcement in working with them to crack down on prison contraband and COVID fraud occurring in his facilities. Ford Boroughs and Stirling worked hand-in-hand during her brief tenure to crack down on corrupt prison officials, The Post and Courier reported in January.
Federal prosecutors indicted about 30 people outside and inside South Carolina prisons for COVID-related fraud against the SC Department of Employment and Workforce, according to previous Post and Courier reporting. The group engaged in a scheme to obtain $5 million in COVID-19 unemployment and insurance benefits in 2020 in South Carolina and other states. Nearly all of the indicted people have since pleaded guilty, according to a January email from SCDC.
South Carolina also resumed the execution of inmates on death row while Stirling was director. In that role, he oversaw the killing five of death-row inmates in the last seven months. Preparation to resume executions including retrofitting the death chamber to accommodating firing squad executions and securing new sources of lethal injection drugs after lawmakers passed new laws protecting the identity of providers.
SCDC under Stirling also worked with federal prosecutors and law enforcement through several years to obtain a federal grand jury indictment against a former prison captain engaged in a bribery scheme. The grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against former SCDC Capt. Christine Livingston and SCDC inmate Jerrell Reaves for bribery, conspiracy, honest serves wire fraud and money laundering. Livingston was accused of accepting more than $200,000 in bribes while working at Broad River Correctional Institution and bringing about 173 cellphones into facility.
The agency confiscated roughly 35,000 weapons from the prison while he was director and has deployed a "cellphone interdiction system" that has allowed prison staff to target contraband cellphones and disable them, according to a January email from SCDC.
Nicholas Reynolds and Ian Grenier in Columbia and Caitlin Byrd in Charleston contributed to this report.