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Former foot-the-ball player Brett Farrrrvre has offered a rare public comment on his involvement in Mississippi’s big welfare-theft scandal — not a scandal involving people receiving welfare, by the way, but theft of funds for poor people by government and “nonprofit” officials … and a few millionaire athletes (who have not been charged). Favre issued a statement to Fox News Digital yesterday in which he insists he’s pure as the driven Mississippi Delta snow and a victim of mean media people who keep reporting on his role in the scandal.
In the statement, Favre said he had “been unjustly smeared in the media” and that “I have done nothing wrong, and it is past time to set the record straight.”
No one ever told me, and I did not know, that funds designated for welfare recipients were going to the University or me. I tried to help my alma mater USM, a public Mississippi state university, raise funds for a wellness center. My goal was and always will be to improve the athletic facilities at my university.
Favre has been under scrutiny for his role in securing $5 million in funds for a volleyball stadium at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter was a volleyball player. As Mississippi Today has reported, the project was pushed through with the excuse that the volleyball stadium would also serve as a “wellness center” that would serve low-income families in the Hattiesburg area.
We are not convinced.
The funds were diverted from the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, which in the olden days was called “welfare,” and even now is putatively meant to provide cash assistance to poor families, or at least to programs that states can claim with a straight face will benefit needy families.
In reality, Mississippi, like many red states, prefers not to trust poor people with cash for rent and food, so instead it funnels most of its federal “welfare” funds to nonprofit organizations that are supposed to fight poverty through job training, parenting classes, and other important services like telling poor people not to fuck. And remember, the $5 million for the USM volleyball center (not counting $1.1 million in no-show PSA’s for Favre that were purported to also go to the “wellness center”) was only part of the sprawling scandal, in which some $77 million in federal welfare funds were misused during Bryant’s administration.
In his statement to Fox News Digital, Favre insisted that as far as he’d known, everything was on the up and up:
State agencies provided the funds to Nancy New’s charity, the Mississippi Community Education Center, which then gave the funds to the University, all with the full knowledge and approval of other State agencies, including the State-wide Institute for Higher Learning, the Governor’s office and the Attorney General’s office.
I was told that the legal work to ensure that these funds could be accepted by the university was done by State attorneys and State employees.
For all Favre’s denials that he knew anything untoward was going on, Mississippi Today’sinvestigation certainly suggests otherwise. Text messages entered into evidence as part of a lawsuit in the scandal showed that former Gov. Phil Bryant had advised Favre on how to write a grant proposal for the volleyball center and apply for funding through the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS). Bryant also contacted Nancy New, the founder of the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, a key player in the scandal, to follow up.
“Just left Brett Favre,” Bryant texted nonprofit founder Nancy New in July of 2019, within weeks of Davis’ departure. “Can we help him with his project. We should meet soon to see how I can make sure we keep your projects on course.”
New and her adult son have both pleaded guilty to several felony counts in the scandal and are now cooperating with investigators. In addition, former MDHS director John Davis recently pleaded guilty to federal charges in the scandal; they’ll all be facing prison time. Favre hasn’t been charged just yet, and recently hired former Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann — the guy who famously advised coup plotter John Eastman to get a “good fucking criminal defense attorney.”
Bryant, for his part, has been insisting he knows nothing at all about any misuse of funds, and that he had no idea New and Favre were up to no good. Recently released texts show that Bryant warned Favre that there were limits to how funds could be obtained to finish the volleyball center:
“We are going to get there. This was a great meeting,” Bryant texted Favre in September of 2019 […] “But we have to follow the law. I am to[o] old for Federal Prison. [smiley face, sunglasses emoji].”
Bryant had also texted Favre on July 28 ,2019, to warn the while New
“has some limited control over Federal Funds in the form of Grants for Children and adults in the Low Income Community.”
“Use of these funds [is] tightly controlled,” Bryant wrote, according to the filing. “Any improper use could result in violation of Federal Law. Auditors are currently reviewing the use of these funds.”
Mississippi Auditor Shad White, who’s been part of the investigation of the welfare scandal, told the Associated Press he’s not terribly persuaded by Favre’s statement.
Obviously, Mr. Favre knew that he was being paid in government funds, based on the texts. He knew that those funds were coming from the Department of Human Services. He’s obviously acknowledged that he needed to repay those funds, too.
Favre did indeed return the $1.1 million payment to the state, although he’s still short $228,000 in interest, the state says.
Mississippi Today also notes that Favre’s statement yesterday makes no mention of another aspect of the scandal in which Favre
solicited and received welfare funding to launch a pharmaceutical company called Prevacus, which purportedly aimed to develop drugs that would prevent concussions.
Favre has previously insisted he didn’t know those funds involved welfare money either, although again, text messages indicated that he knew the money was coming from government grants, and suggested it would be nice to cut New in on some Prevacus stock, and to buy then-MDHS director John Davis (who has since pleaded guilty, too) a nice new Ford F-150 Raptor pickup.
In 2020, Favre told Mississippi Today that the Prevacus project was “about economic development plain and simple!!!” But text messages revealed that Favre had personal motives at heart.
The week Prevacus was supposed to receive its first round of funding from New, Favre texted his partner of top welfare officials: “This all works out we need to buy her and John Davis surprise him with a vehicle I thought maybe John Davis we could get him a raptor.”
Minutes later, Favre followed up: “Honestly give me your thoughts on what you think all this means … When we will make money.”
Favre also once texted: “Call me crazy but my goal is to take home 20 million.”
Sadly, the state’s investigation put a stop to all that, probably because Shad White, a Republican, hates free enterprise, especially when it’s conducted with welfare money. Jeez, it’s not like those poor people were going to start a profitable pharmaceutical company with the money.
[AP / Fox News / Mississippi Today]
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