Ex-US attorney explains why this NFL star is a critical piece in the Mississippi welfare investigation

19 May 2023

A former U.S. attorney is offering his take on the welfare investigation currently underway in Mississippi and how former NFL star Brett Farve could be an intrinsic part of the probe.

According to The Hill, Brad Pigott was previously employed by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) and the Mississippi Department of Human Services as one of the attorneys investigating Mississippi's misuse of welfare funding.

At the time, the state had been accused of misappropriating millions in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) federal funding. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Pigott explained why Favre's grant money requests may be problematic.

“Brett Favre’s repeated demands for this grant money were certainly the driving force,” Pigott said.

Per The Hill, "Millions of the state’s welfare funds would also be directed to a Favre-backed pharmaceutical company known as Prevacus. In total, about $8.3 million in TANF funds went toward Favre’s projects, according to Sports Illustrated."

"The biggest chunk, by far, went to Favre’s projects: $8.3 million," Sports Illustrated also noted.

According to the news outlet, Pigott has said publicly "that Tate Reeves fired him for trying to subpoena the USM Athletic Foundation. Reeves countered that he did it because Pigott had 'a political agenda.' [Shad] White, who has been dogged by insinuations that he was protecting Bryant, tweeted, 'Firing Pigott is a mistake.'”

Pigott also emphasized, “None of these people seemed to give a hoot about the actual purpose of the TANF money. Much of the sloppiness can be traced to that. They just didn’t take it seriously. It wasn’t important to them.”