State auditor Shad White is accused within the go well with of getting “carried out an outrageous media campaign of malicious and false accusations” towards Favre. Sharpe, an analyst with Fox Sports 1, and McAfee, an ESPN analyst who produces his personal widespread podcast, are accused of constructing “false and malicious statements” on the air concerning the Hall of Fame quarterback. Each lawsuit notes that, earlier than it was filed, the defendant refused to “retract and apologize for his defamatory statements” after receiving a letter from Favre.
Favre, 53, has been accused of taking part in a scheme to divert $5 million to construct a volleyball facility on the University of Southern Mississippi, the place his daughter performed the game and he starred in faculty. The Mississippi native has repaid $1.1 million he obtained, ostensibly for talking engagements that didn’t materialize, out of a pool that originated with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Funds allegedly made their strategy to Favre and a USM-related sports activities basis by a nonprofit, the Mississippi Community Education Center, that had contracts with the state’s Department of Human Services.
A former DHS director, John Davis, and two officers with MCEC have pleaded guilty to federal and state prices in connection to the scandal, which White’s workplace has described as “Mississippi’s largest public fraud scheme.” Also ensnared within the scandal had been Brett DiBiase, a former wrestler who pleaded responsible in 2020 to a felony rely of constructing fraudulent statements, and former DHS accountant Anne McGrew.
Favre, who has stated he was “unjustly smeared” and did “nothing wrong,” has not been charged with against the law. He was named as one among over three dozen defendants in a lawsuit filed by Mississippi’s DHS that seeks to claw again tens of millions in TANF funds. Lawyers for Favre requested in November that he be dismissed from that lawsuit, which they known as “nothing more than a baseless attempt to blame Brett Favre for [the DHS’s] own failure to oversee the welfare funds placed in its trust.”
The lawsuits filed Thursday by Favre’s staff accused White, Sharpe and McAfee of buying and selling on the ex-quarterback’s “celebrity” for skilled achieve.
“By shamelessly and falsely attacking Favre’s good name, White has gained national media attention he previously could have only dreamed of,” the lawsuit states. Examples cited by the submitting of “egregiously false and defamatory” statements attributed to White embrace “accusing Favre of ‘steal[ing] taxpayer funds’ and knowingly misusing funds ‘designed to serve poor folks.’”
The lawsuit towards Sharpe states that his “outrageous falsehoods” embrace saying that Favre was “a sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low” and that he “stole money from people that really needed that money.” McAfee’s cited feedback embrace asserting that Favre was “stealing from poor people in Mississippi.”
In a press release Thursday, a spokesman for White stated all the auditor’s feedback on the TANF case are “true” and “backed by years of audit work” by professionals at their state workplace.
A consultant for Sharpe didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. McAfee used his Twitter account Thursday to make an indirect, lighthearted reference to Favre’s lawsuit by sharing a snippet from a courtroom scene in a former Comedy Central program, “Chappelle’s Show.”
In feedback supplied to Fox News in October, Favre stated, “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. … 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.”
The lawsuit towards White famous that in May 2020, after his workplace obtained an preliminary installment of $500,000 towards the $1.1 million Favre finally repaid, the auditor wrote: “I want to applaud Mr. Favre for his good faith effort to make this right and make the taxpayers and TANF families whole. To date, we have seen no records indicating Mr. Favre knew that TANF was the program that served as the source of the money he was paid.”
“White, without basis, reversed course a year later,” the lawsuit states, “seeking press attention for his forthcoming reelection campaign.”
Some of White’s feedback which can be cited within the lawsuit got here throughout September 2022, shortly after a Mississippi Today investigation revealed the involvement of former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant within the plan to make use of TANF funds through MCEC to construct the volleyball facility. Among the small print unearthed had been textual content messages between Favre and one of many MCEC directors who subsequently pleaded responsible. In one of many texts, Favre requested the administrator, “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?”
White told Fox News in October that paperwork made public by filings associated to the civil case confirmed Favre “did know it was government money, and he did know that it was coming from this agency … that is responsible for handling programs that are geared toward helping the poor.”
“It’s mind-boggling that Mr. Favre wants to have a trial about that question,” White’s spokesman, Fletcher Freeman, stated Thursday in his assertion concerning the defamation lawsuit. “Mr. Favre has called Auditor White and his team liars despite repaying some of the money our office demanded from him. He’s also claimed the auditors are liars despite clear documentary evidence showing he benefitted from misspent funds.
“Instead of paying New York litigators to try this case, he’d be better off fully repaying the amount of welfare funds he owes the state.”