Often lost in the fact that Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre sued broadcasters Pat McAfee and Shannon Sharpe for defamation is that Mississippi auditor Shad White also has been accused of telling lies about Favre’s role in the state’s welfare-fund scandal.
White is now pushing back publicly against Favre.
Recently, Mississippi filed a response to Favre’s effort to be removed from a civil complaint aimed at recovering welfare funds. The State’s filing includes what White’s communications director, Logan Reeves, characterizes as “never-reported Favre text messages.”
Reeves also points to a Twitter thread from White regarding the situation. White tweeted an excerpt from the state’s new filing, regarding what White says are new text messages from Favre.
“Will the public perception be that I became a spokesperson for various state funded shelters, schools, homes, etc. . . . and was compensated with state money?” Favre asked, per the filing. “Or can we keep this confidential.”
Favre also asked, per the filing, about a potential solution to “the brick and mortar issue,” which the state characterizes as Favre knowing that welfare funds couldn’t be used for actual construction of buildings, “but he sought to secretly obtain those funds for that purpose anyway.”
Says White one of several tweets: “The public already knew Favre knew he was receiving public money. But the new texts make it clear Favre knew he was receiving ‘grant’ money intended to benefit people in ‘state funded shelters, schools, homes, etc.’ In other words, the poor.”
White also takes aim at Favre’s request to keep the payments quiet.
“The point is that there are multiple exchanges where Favre stressed the need for secrecy,” White tweeted. “National news has talked about how Favre said in one text that he didn’t want the media to find out. This wasn’t a one-off, transient thought, though. He said it repeatedly.”
White also contends that the texts provide “definitively” that “Favre was aware there were concerns about the legality of spending this money on a volleyball court . . . [a]nd he knew there was a need to get around those rules.”
White discloses in the thread that he is indeed a defendant in Favre’s defamation case.
“Bear in mind, this is the guy suing me for defamation for having the temerity to tell taxpayers the truth: that Favre knew he was being paid in public funds and he knows this was a sham,” White tweeted.
Truth is an absolute defense to a defamation case. This latest filing, coupled with the stream of tweets from Shad White, seem to be directly calculated at proving that the things said by him, McAfee, and Sharpe about Favre are true.
Favre has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. We’ll defer to the relevant court processes before coming to any firm conclusions as to what he did or didn’t do, and what he knew or didn’t know.