Former Mississippi governor sues information web site over welfare fraud feedback

JACKSON, Miss. — 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 meant to assist a few of the poorest folks within the U.S.

The lawsuit comes simply over two months after Mississippi At the moment and considered one of its reporters, Anna Wolfe, gained a Pulitzer Prize for her protection of the welfare misspending. The information outlet’s story asserting that honor is one instance of the place the previous governor says he was defamed. Bryant’s lawyer filed a grievance Wednesday within the Circuit Courtroom of Madison County in opposition to the outlet’s CEO, Mary Margaret White, and Deep South At the moment, the outlet’s nonprofit proprietor.

The lawsuit, which doesn’t seem to problem the veracity of Mississippi At the moment’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 At the moment,” wrote Denton Gibbes, a Bryant spokesperson, in an e mail. “He’s assured within the swimsuit he has introduced and, by his attorneys, will persuade 12 residents of Madison County of simply that.”

Henry Laird, an lawyer representing Mississippi At the moment, mentioned he had “nice confidence that Mississippi At the moment and its CEO will defeat this misguided and ill-conceived litigation.”

“They’ve performed nothing flawed, and our response to the grievance will mirror that,” Laird added.

On the heart of the lawsuit are a 2022 “affect report” revealed by the information web site, a 2023 look at a nationwide media convention by White and a Pulitzer Prize award announcement. In every of these situations, the outlet misrepresented Bryant’s connection to the squandered welfare {dollars}, argued William Quin II, Bryant’s lawyer. The feedback quantity to a concerted effort to wreck Bryant’s fame, Quin wrote.

An article revealed on Mississippi At the moment’s web site asserting the Pulitzer win mentioned the outlet revealed how Bryant “used his workplace to steer the spending of tens of millions of federal welfare {dollars}” to “profit his household and buddies.”

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 At the moment Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau. Taken collectively, Quin argued the feedback quantity to a concerted effort to wreck Bryant’s fame.

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

No prison costs have been filed in opposition to Bryant, and he has mentioned he advised the auditor in 2019 about potential misspending of cash from the Momentary Help for Needy Households antipoverty program.

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

Wolfe’s “The Backchannel” collection make clear the misspending of welfare funds meant for poor Mississippians that had been as an alternative diverted to the wealthy and highly effective. Prosecutors have mentioned the state’s human companies division gave cash to nonprofit organizations that spent it on tasks similar to a $5 million volleyball facility on the College of Southern Mississippi — a mission for which retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre agreed to boost 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 Providers, with a brand new director, filed a civil lawsuit final yr in opposition to him, together with greater than three dozen different folks and companies, to attempt to get better 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 Honest, 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 At the moment a “Democrat SuperPAC” and has refused to reply its reporters’ questions at marketing campaign occasions.

___

This story has been up to date to right the spelling of the final title of Bryant’s lawyer, William Quin II.

___

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.