Former Mississippi governor sues information web site over welfare fraud feedback

JACKSON, Miss. — Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is suing an area information group, claiming it defamed him in public feedback on the misspending of $77 million of federal welfare funds supposed to assist a number of the poorest folks within the U.S.

The lawsuit comes simply over two months after Mississippi Today and considered one of its reporters, Anna Wolfe, received a Pulitzer Prize for her protection of the welfare misspending. Bryant‘s attorney filed a complaint Wednesday in the Circuit Court of Madison County against the outlet’s CEO, Mary Margaret White, and Deep South Today, the outlet’s nonprofit proprietor.

The lawsuit, which doesn’t seem to problem the veracity of Mississippi Today’s findings in regards to the welfare scandal, claims White and different workers 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 Today,” wrote Denton Gibbes, a Bryant spokesperson, in an e mail. “He is confident in the suit he has brought and, through his attorneys, will convince 12 residents of Madison County of just that.”

Henry Laird, an lawyer representing Mississippi Today, stated he was nonetheless reviewing the lawsuit Thursday afternoon.

At the middle of the lawsuit is a 2022 “impact report” printed 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 Quinn II, Bryant‘s lawyer. The feedback quantity to a concerted effort to wreck Bryant‘s repute, Quinn wrote.

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

Mississippi Today had already printed an apology from White in May, per week after Bryant threatened a lawsuit, however he has since demanded new retractions. Bryant stated in a licensed letter May 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 prices have been filed towards Bryant, and he has stated he instructed the auditor in 2019 about attainable misspending of cash from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families antipoverty program.

Mississippi Auditor Shad White introduced in February 2020 that prison prices have been introduced towards six folks, together with John Davis, a former Mississippi Department of Human Services government 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” sequence make clear the misspending of welfare funds supposed for poor Mississippians that have been as an alternative 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 tasks corresponding to a $5 million volleyball facility on the University of Southern Mississippi — a undertaking 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 against the law, however the Mississippi Department of Human Services, with a brand new director, filed a civil lawsuit final 12 months towards him, together with greater than three dozen different folks and companies, to attempt to recuperate greater than $20 million of the misspent welfare cash.

Bryant‘s lawsuit was filed on the same day stump speeches for statewide officials began at the Neshoba County Fair, one of the marquee political events of the year. Mississippi’s incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who’s operating for reelection, has known as Mississippi Today a “Democratic SuperPAC” and has refused to reply its reporters’ questions at marketing campaign occasions.