Former Mississippi Governor Sues Information Web site Over Welfare Fraud Feedback

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is suing a neighborhood information group, claiming it defamed him in public feedback on the misspending of $77 million of federal welfare funds supposed to assist a few of the poorest individuals within the U.S.

The lawsuit comes simply over two months after Mississippi Immediately and considered one of its reporters, Anna Wolfe, won a Pulitzer Prize for her protection of the welfare misspending. Bryant’s legal professional filed a criticism Wednesday within the Circuit Court docket of Madison County in opposition to the outlet’s CEO, Mary Margaret White, and Deep South Immediately, the outlet’s nonprofit proprietor.

The lawsuit, which doesn’t seem to problem the veracity of Mississippi Immediately’s findings concerning the welfare scandal, claims White and different staff made “slanderous” or unfounded feedback about Bryant when discussing the outlet’s reporting in a number of public settings.

“Governor Bryant believes he has been libeled by Mississippi Immediately,” wrote Denton Gibbes, a Bryant spokesperson, in an e mail. “He’s assured within the swimsuit he has introduced and, via his attorneys, will persuade 12 residents of Madison County of simply that.”

Henry Laird, an legal professional representing Mississippi Immediately, stated he was nonetheless reviewing the lawsuit Thursday afternoon.

On the middle of the lawsuit is a 2022 “influence report” printed by the information website, a 2023 look at a nationwide media convention by White and a Pulitzer Prize award announcement. In every of these cases, the outlet misrepresented Bryant’s connection to the squandered welfare {dollars}, argued William Quinn II, Bryant’s legal professional. The feedback quantity to a concerted effort to wreck Bryant’s repute, Quinn wrote.

The lawsuit additionally cited what it asserted had been unfair feedback in a radio interview given by Wolfe and a podcast episode that includes Wolfe and Mississippi Immediately Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau. Taken collectively, Quinn argued the feedback quantity to a concerted effort to wreck Bryant’s repute.

Mississippi Immediately had already published an apology from White in Might, per week after Bryant threatened a lawsuit, however he has since demanded new retractions. Bryant stated in an authorized letter Might 11 that White made a “false and defamatory” assertion about him when, at a journalism convention in February, she stated the outlet broke the story that Bryant “embezzled” welfare cash.

No prison expenses have been filed in opposition to Bryant, and he has stated he instructed the auditor in 2019 about attainable misspending of cash from the Momentary Help for Needy Households antipoverty program.

Mississippi Auditor Shad White introduced in February 2020 that prison expenses had been introduced in opposition to six individuals, together with John Davis, a former Mississippi Division of Human Companies govt director who had been chosen by Bryant. The announcement got here weeks after Bryant, a Republican, completed his second and ultimate time period as governor. Davis and others have pleaded responsible.

Wolfe’s “The Backchannel” collection make clear the misspending of welfare funds supposed for poor Mississippians that had been as a substitute diverted to the wealthy and highly effective. Prosecutors have stated the state’s human providers division gave cash to nonprofit organizations that spent it on initiatives similar to a $5 million volleyball facility on the College of Southern Mississippi — a mission for which retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre agreed to lift cash. Favre’s daughter performed volleyball on the college.

Favre has additionally not been charged with a criminal offense, however the Mississippi Division of Human Companies, with a brand new director, filed a civil lawsuit final yr in opposition to him, together with greater than three dozen different individuals and companies, to attempt to get well greater than $20 million of the misspent welfare cash.

Bryant’s lawsuit was filed on the identical day stump speeches for statewide officers started on the Neshoba County Fair, one of many marquee political occasions of the yr. Mississippi’s incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who’s working for reelection, has referred to as Mississippi Immediately a “Democratic SuperPAC” and has refused to reply its reporters’ questions at marketing campaign occasions.

Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Observe him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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