Brett Favre to Provide Sworn Testimony in Mississippi Welfare Funds Misuse Case

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Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre is scheduled to give sworn testimony concerning the misallocation of federal welfare funds in Mississippi, a state where the intended recipients were among the nation’s most economically disadvantaged. The funds were instead diverted to various endeavors that Favre and other well-connected individuals endorsed.

Legal representatives for Mississippi’s Department of Human Services submitted a deposition notice this Monday in the Circuit Court of Hinds County. The notice indicates that Favre, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is one among numerous defendants in an ongoing lawsuit initiated by the current director of Human Services. The lawsuit aims to recover misappropriated welfare funds.

Favre has contested any unlawful behavior, has sued the state auditor responsible for examining the misused funds for defamation, and has claimed to have returned the improperly allocated welfare money.

Mississippi has consistently been ranked as one of the poorest states in the United States. However, only a small proportion of its federal welfare funds have been allocated for direct assistance to families in need. According to both state and federal authorities and the state auditor, the Mississippi Department of Human Services permitted the squandering of $77 million in federal welfare funds from 2016 through 2019.

Approximately $5 million of the misallocated funds were used to support the construction of a volleyball facility at Favre’s alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, located in Hattiesburg. The state auditor, Shad White, who led the investigation into the misuse, indicated that Favre’s daughter was a volleyball player at the university. An additional $1.7 million was channeled into the research and development of a concussion treatment medication, another project that Favre endorsed.

While Favre has not been criminally charged, former executives of the department and several others have entered guilty pleas related to the misuse of funds. Favre sought to have himself removed as a defendant in the civil lawsuit through appeals to both the Circuit Court of Hinds County and the Mississippi Supreme Court, but was unsuccessful in both instances.

The deposition is set to be administered through oral questioning in the presence of a court reporter, and there is a possibility that the proceedings will be video-recorded. A confidentiality agreement, approved by the court, mandates that the testimony remains sealed for a minimum of 30 days following its conclusion, as indicated by court documents.

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Michael Goldberg is a member of the corps for the Big Big News/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to deploying journalists into local newsrooms to cover topics that are often underreported. Follow him at @mikergoldberg.