U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling, who was confirmed Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, talks to reporters about a federal move toward cellphone jamming in prisons at his office in Columbia, S.C., on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Bryan Stirling is officially the state’s U.S. attorney after a vote to confirm him succeeded Thursday evening.
The U.S. Senate voted 53-43 along party lines to make Stirling, who started the job on an interim basis in April, the state’s top federal prosecutor. South Carolina’s senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans, voted in favor.
“Bryan is a motivated individual who is highly qualified for this position,” Graham said in a statement soon after the vote. “He will fiercely fight crime and make South Carolina safer.”
SC prisons director sworn in as U.S. attorney; deputy tapped as acting director
As U.S. attorney, Stirling will oversee 120 federal prosecutors. The Trump administration nominated Stirling after removing his predecessor, Adair Ford Boroughs, in February.
Among the cases on his plate are two involving former state legislators. Ex-Rep. RJ May, a West Columbia Republican, is scheduled for sentencing in January after pleading guilty to sending videos of children being sexually abused. And former Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, a North Charleston Democrat, is facing charges of defrauding legal clients, which he denies.
Before his nomination, Stirling spent more than a decade overseeing the state’s 21 prisons, which house more than 16,000 inmates.
As director of the state Department of Corrections, the 56-year-old cracked down on contraband coming into state prisons, including making South Carolina the first state to use a technology that lets cellphone providers shut down illicit phones often used to commit crimes from prison. He led a push to change federal law and allow states to make inmates’ cellphones useless, which the Federal Communications Commission agreed to advance in September.
Stirling successfully asked legislators to raise pay for corrections officers working in the state’s prisons to stem turnover and make it easier to hire qualified officers. And he oversaw a number of programs meant to keep inmates from returning to prison after release.
He also led the department through a 2018 prison riot that left seven inmates dead. And he oversaw the resumption of executions after a 13 year pause, including the addition of the firing squad that legislators required when they made it part of state law in 2021.
The Department of Corrections posted congratulations to Stirling on its social media account Thursday, writing: “South Carolina is lucky to have such a dedicated, ethical public servant, and SCDC is blessed to have had your leadership.”
Joel Anderson, Stirling’s deputy director of operations in the prison system, took over the role soon after Stirling’s April swearing-in as U.S. attorney.
Before overseeing the prisons, Stirling worked as chief of staff for then-Gov. Nikki Haley. He was also deputy attorney general during Gov. Henry McMaster’s two terms as the state’s head prosecutor.
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