Attorneys for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre say the civil lawsuit against him that seeks to recover misspent welfare money in Mississippi’s largest-ever public corruption case should be dismissed.
In Mississippi, where elected officials have a long history of praising self-sufficiency and condemning federal antipoverty programs, a welfare scandal has exposed how millions of dollars were diverted to the rich and powerful including pro athletes instead of helping some of the neediest people in the nation. The misuse of welfare money rankles Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, executive director of One Voice, a nonprofit that works to help economically vulnerable communities in Mississippi. The state has ranked among the poorest in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going toward direct aid to families.
don t see the constant vilification of brett favre that you might expect given that scandal that, say, dogfighting has caused in the past for athletes. it s heartbreaking and crushing far of is a perfect example. he is from the state of mississippi. he played in this super vdivers world that is the nfl. this drives me crazy his teammates were african american guys he played with throughout his career who were brought up in low-income areas, who depended on welfare money, needed help, families, white and black, needed help for him for him to take mone allegedly, take money that was designated for the poorest and his home state of mississippi, which for the record is th poorest state in america, an divert it to help build
unproven concussion nasal spray that was supposedly going to reduce brain swelling. but the experts we spoke to say there is no evidence that this works, four years later no evidence it works in humans, it has been one layer of study that shows it doesn t do harm, and the company that is currently trying to market the drug, our financial analyst looked at the paperwork and said this company is in dire financial straits. and in addition to being a scandal and illegal according to the state aud thor, it was a bad business deal. take a listen to the state auditor who blew the whistle on this. what s wrong with using welfare money to help fund the development of a concussion drug? even if the concussion treatment had been a viable real treatment for concussions you cannot spend welfare money intended for the poor on a situation like this. and it was promoted even as
in a text message obtained by cbs news. new responded, we can send $400k today, adding, i will need to let brett know that we will need to pull this from what we were hoping to help with on other activities. she has since pleaded guilty for helping funnel millions in welfare money for a volleyball center at favre s alma mater. eric herschmann, brett favre s attorney, insists his client didn t know the grants were coming from welfare funds, and that favre didn t personally receive any of the money paid to prevacus. you re almost making him sound like a patsy. like he was set up. he s not a patsy. it s that no one told him. do you want the outside quarterback to look at it and h say, wait a minute, let me chalenge the entire state as to what they do with their own funds? this is not philanthropy. it s not a passive investor. he invited the director of the mississippi department of human services into his house to receive the sales pitch. reporter: favre has not been charged