After an extended delay, the administration of Donald Trump is close to naming a U.S. attorney for the state of South Carolina.
Who is getting the job?
According to our sources, the gig is going to Columbia, S.C. white collar criminal attorney Sherri Lydon – who reportedly edged out state representative Peter McCoy. S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) director Bryan Stirling was also considered for the post, but only Lydon and McCoy were vetted by the White House.
The U.S. attorney is the top federal prosecutor for the state of South Carolina. That’s a tremendously powerful office – and a tremendously necessary one given the rampant public corruption that exists in the Palmetto State. That’s why we’ve been pushing for the better part of the past year for Trump to make his selection – and to make it count.
(Click to view)
(Via: Lydon Law Firm)
As we noted earlier this month, Lydon (above) and McCoy were part of a proxy war between former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and current governor Henry McMaster. Haley favored Lydon, whom she previously appointed to the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC), while McMaster favored McCoy.
The race went back and forth for months, with Lydon emerging as the favorite last fall.
If she is ultimately chosen by Trump, Lydon would become the first woman to hold the job on a permanent basis (although the office has been run for the past year on an interim basis by acting U.S. attorney Beth Drake).
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A former assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the statewide grand jury, Lydon was one of the lead prosecutors in Operation Lost Trust – the last major criminal corruption scandal to rock the S.C. General Assembly. She was also the lead prosecutor in the Carolina Investors and Homegold investment debacle that rocked the Palmetto State back in 2003. More than 12,000 South Carolinians – most of them from the Palmetto Upstate – lost an estimated $278 million in connection with that case.
She has significant prosecutorial experience, and is well respected by attorneys, judges and law enforcement officials.
Earlier this year we ran an exclusive report on Lydon’s brief work on behalf of one of the targets of the state’s ongoing #ProbeGate investigation, but as we noted in that story “we’ve seen nothing to suggest she hasn’t conducted herself ethically throughout this process – including withdrawing herself from the case at the appropriate time.”
This news site has consistently called on Trump to fill this post with someone committed to eradicating the incestuous, pay-to-play network that drives decision-making in South Carolina.
We’ve also called on him to appoint someone willing to aggressively pursue a pair of open, multi-jurisdictional investigations (#ProbeGate and #NukeGate) highlighting this incestuous network.
“It’s up to Trump to set a new tone for this post – hopefully one of aggressive intolerance when it comes to public corruption,” we noted last June. “Because let’s be honest: If any state is in need of a modern-day Eliot Ness, it’s South Carolina.”
We expanded on this theme in October in discussing Lydon’s candidacy …
“Public faith in South Carolina’s institutions – and the outcomes they’ve been producing – is at an all-time low,” we wrote. “Trump’s choice for this office must reflect his administration’s commitment to restoring that trust.”
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