Brett Favre And The Mississippi Welfare Scandal Explained | The Katie Phang Show

By now you may have heard something about a

welfare

scandal

in Mississippi involving Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, and let's face it, if this story happened just a decade ago, no media I could stop talking about it, but welcome to 2022 and we have a There's a lot to distract yourself with these days, so let's catch up, so these are the four main players in this

scandal

that you need to know. On the far left is former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, he was the man in charge of the state of Mississippi. When all this happened, now next to him is John Davis, the former director of the state

welfare

agency and next is Nancy New, she was the director of a nonprofit in Mississippi that worked with the welfare agency. state welfare and then, next to it, is, of course.

Former NFL quarterback and Mississippi native Brett Favre are all caught up in an alleged welfare fraud that, according to the Mississippi state auditor, involved the use of more than $70 million intended for the poorest of the state; the money was instead used for all sorts of non-welfare related payments, such as to a retired professional wrestler, a horse farm, and yes, Brett Favre. Keep in mind that this is the same state where its capital could not even supply drinking water for months to its residents and ranks among the poor. State in the country with almost 20 percent of its residents living in poverty.

The State Auditor's report found that Farf took more than a million dollars for speeches he never gave and repaid that money, but the state says he still owes more than two hundred thousand dollars. Of interest, that same report

show

s that $5 million in welfare funds were used to build a new volleyball stadium at Farr's alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. His daughter happened to have played volleyball at USM at the time. Farv and Bryant have denied knowing where the money came from and neither has been charged with any crime, but Davis and New this spring, New and his son pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors since then. , an attorney representing a nonprofit news organization provided text messages. from farv suggesting to critics his increased involvement in welfare plan farv allegedly wrote in a text Nancy Santa came by today and left some money the messages do not indicate that farv knew exactly where the cash came from, although last week Davis pleaded guilty to several federal and state charges in The Plea Davis has also agreed to fully cooperate with prosecutors as they move forward with the case.

Joining me now to help break it all down is AJ Perez, he's a senior reporter for the Sports front office and he's been covering this story. up close as with many other stories we're always interested in, AJ, thank you so much for joining the

show

today. I mean, I wanted to cover Waterfront in that intro. Is there anything I've missed, especially in terms of the latest news? developments you think our viewers should know now there are a couple of things but you covered them very well one was them or he didn't get the money funnel for college but he was also trying to get 1.5 million dollars for an indoor soccer facility to help recruit Deion Sanders' son in 2019.

Okay, we'll get to that in a minute, trust me, I wasn't going to let that sit on the sidelines, no pun intended, so we just talked about John Davis taking a deal of guilt who has written that he believes Brett Favre could be prosecutors' next target. How worried should you be that charges could be on the way now that Davis himself has accepted a plea deal? Yes, as you

explained

, there are two big fish who have not yet been charged are former Governor Phil Bryan and Brett Favre. Brett Favre is being sued in that lawsuit where we got all those text messages last week and we got several text messages that seem to show until now he knew the money was coming from somewhere maybe it shouldn't come from um and it was. as you know that's how he's been tied to over eight million dollars of welfare, the welfare funds were funneled to him like you mentioned. through the speeches or his projects, as well as the uh and the others, Phil Bryant, who is not a plaintiff, unlike Barbers, the plaintiff is not a lawsuit as you mentioned, but yeah, Brian is still, you know , that's who published the whole text. messages to try to do it last week he was trying to distance himself from farv and trying to put the blame on farb instead of him AJ, it's just me, but I feel like this Brett Favre issue has been percolating for a while, Tell our Viewers, how long has Farved been a target of this investigation, I mean the money for the speeches he took, for the speeches he never gave.

Gosh, I feel like that was yesterday, but it's been a while, yeah, it goes back to 2017 to 2018. when the state auditor started looking at a startup that he was involved in, this was a concussion treatment startup, a nasal spray to treat concussions, the startup was called previcus um and I actually covered this years ago because I wanted to talk to far for another story. and then I mentioned the predicate and, you know, I didn't get married because it seemed a little crazy to treat a head injury, a traumatic brain injury with a nasal spray like Nasonex, but you know, I give you I mentioned it, but that's how the auditor The state government went so far: it got those $2.2 million that came from the same funds, and these funds, as you mentioned, are intended for the poorest of the poor. and the poorest state in the nation, and they don't provide much direct support to those living in poverty in Mississippi, so this got them going, so the state auditor went to see the speeches. and then they found out this about the volleyball complex, you know, like I said before and like you mentioned, there are many layers to the story, you reported last week that Brett Favre wasn't done after getting the money for the volleyball stadium he left for . to try to get an additional $1.5 million in welfare funds to build an indoor football facility in south Mississippi, you mentioned it was to recruit Deion Sanders' son.

I read obviously that Deion Sanders and Brett Favre were friends for a while, his son was looking for another. University to go play another show, what more can you tell us about these developments? I mean, it literally came up a few days ago, yeah, it was uh, his son is now playing for Dion, for his father in Jackson. Tell me, and in 2019, he was one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the nation, so everyone was, you know, giving him their chance and, beyond that, beyond the text messages, there was also, even Now, I don't know if. He was either flippant or actually serious about using prison labor to help these projects stay under budget.

You know, AJ Farv earned over $140 million during his playing career. Doesn't include sponsorships etc, what is he talking about? All this means is that he took money intended for the poorest people in Mississippi, the most needy. Has there been anything for Brett Favre in your own defense of him? He hasn't published anything. There is no statement from him. He has not done any media. They have taken it. Of his three media spots that he had, it was serious scrutiny, ESPN Radio in Milwaukee and also 3013, which is a sports and football news website, so he basically hasn't said anything since, I would say, the September 13, when he appeared on one of those shows or wrote something for that website and uh, his agent won't talk, his lawyer, even you wouldn't know, I can't even get through to his lawyer, I get through to his receptionist, oh Man, uh, I don't understand much. uh Mississippi today, who has done a great job and other media in Mississippi have spoken to his attorney and his attorney, as you mentioned, said the farm didn't know where this money was coming from and he didn't know. came from a social assistance program A.G Pérez you are one of the most tenacious investigative reporters I know in this space do not let that receptionist do not let that receptionist break your spirit AJ Pérez thank you very much for being here we will continue After your report, let us know.

I personally think there's an indictment around the corner for Brett Favre, but thank you for being here, I appreciate it, thank you for having me, thank you.