{"id":625858,"date":"2023-04-05T14:50:07","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T19:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/05\/brett-favres-attorneys-claim-he-was-just-trying-to-raise-money-for-a-volleyball-facility-he-cant-be-blamed-for-it-coming-out-of-welfare-funds\/"},"modified":"2023-04-05T14:50:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T19:50:07","slug":"brett-favres-attorneys-claim-he-was-just-trying-to-raise-money-for-a-volleyball-facility-he-cant-be-blamed-for-it-coming-out-of-welfare-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/05\/brett-favres-attorneys-claim-he-was-just-trying-to-raise-money-for-a-volleyball-facility-he-cant-be-blamed-for-it-coming-out-of-welfare-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Brett Favre’s attorneys claim he was just trying to raise money for a volleyball facility\u2014he can’t be blamed for it coming out of welfare funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorneys for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre argued in a new court filing Monday that\u00a0a civil lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against him seeking to recover misspent welfare money in Mississippi\u2019s\u00a0largest ever corruption case<\/a>\u00a0should be should be dismissed because the state Department of Human Services lacks evidence and is attempting to deflect from its own culpability.<\/p>\n

\n

Millions of federal welfare dollars intended to help low-income Mississippi residents \u2014 some of the poorest people in the country \u2014 were instead squandered on projects supported by wealthy or well-connected people, including projects backed by Favre, between 2016 and 2019, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

In a response to the department\u2019s statements that\u00a0a judge should ignore Favre\u2019s request<\/a>\u00a0to be removed from the lawsuit, Favre\u2019s attorneys wrote there is \u201cno legal, factual, or moral basis\u201d for the agency\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is plain that, as it did in its original complaint, MDHS \u2014 which itself carried out the allegedly wrongful transfer of funds to another state entity, a transfer approved by, among others, Mississippi\u2019s Attorney General \u2014 continues to sue Favre solely to attract publicity for improper political purposes,\u201d Favre\u2019s attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Department of Human Services sued Favre and more than three dozen other people or businesses. The suit says federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money was misspent, including $5 million that went to a\u00a0volleyball arena<\/a>\u00a0that Favre supported at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi \u2014 where his daughter also played the sport \u2014 and $1.7 million toward the development of a concussion treatment drug by a company in which Favre was an investor.<\/p>\n

Kaytie Pickett, an attorney for the department, wrote in March court papers that Favre\u2019s attorneys failed to provide solid legal arguments to get their client out of the lawsuit. Calling the attorneys\u2019 motion to dismiss \u201ca long press release,\u201d she said the court should \u201cdisregard Favre\u2019s diatribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMDHS deems Favre\u2019s Motion a \u2018long press release,\u2019 but the shoe is on the other foot,\u201d Favre\u2019s attorneys countered Monday. They say Favre and his wife fulfilled commitments they made in a written pledge \u2014 months after the transfers that form the basis of MDHS\u2019s claims \u2014 to raise funds to construct the volleyball facility.<\/p>\n

Pickett declined to comment Tuesday on the new filings.<\/p>\n

No criminal charges have been brought against the NFL Hall of Famer, although other people have pleaded guilty to their part in the misspending. Those who have pleaded guilty to criminal charges include John Davis, a\u00a0former director<\/a>\u00a0of the Mississippi Department of Human Services; and Nancy New, the\u00a0director of a nonprofit organization<\/a>\u00a0who had ties to Favre and the concussion drug and volleyball projects.<\/p>\n

As Favre has attempted to get out of the lawsuit, he has also filed\u00a0three defamation lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0against Mississippi State Auditor Shad White and two former NFL players, Pat McAfee<\/a> and Shannon Sharpe, who have sharply criticized Favre in their roles as national sportscasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that the state can recover as much misspent welfare money \u2014 whether it\u2019s from Mr. Favre or anyone else who bears responsibility \u2014 as possible,\u201d White told The Associated Press Tuesday. \u201cWe are the auditors, not the lawyers who try these cases in court, but my team stands ready to provide the audit evidence for the criminal and civil cases as they proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Subscribe to Well Adjusted, our newsletter full of simple strategies to work smarter and live better, from the Fortune Well team. Sign up today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Michael Goldberg, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorneys for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre argued in a new court filing Monday that\u00a0a civil lawsuit\u00a0against him seeking to recover misspent welfare money in Mississippi\u2019s\u00a0largest ever corruption case\u00a0should be should be dismissed because the state Department of Human Services lacks evidence and is attempting to deflect from its own culpability. Millions of federal welfare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":625859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1667,121169],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-625858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brett","8":"category-favres"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}