Some disturbing reports surrounding former legendary NFL quarterback Brett Favre emerged earlier this month, suggesting that Favre was involved in an embezzlement scheme involving former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.
The latest twist in that saga comes around the firing of a lawyer who worked for a state agency trying to retrieve the money involved.
Earlier reports on this plan called it “the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history,” and revealed that Bryant directed a woman whose non-profit received millions in subgrants from the Mississippi Department of Human Services welfare department to give Favre $1.1 million.
A state audit in 2020 revealed that the state had misspent as much as $94 million in federal funds that could have gone to families struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is clearly far more about this case that has yet to emerge. And it appears that if the Mississippi Governor’s office has anything to do with it, things may stay in the dark moving forward.
On Saturday, Richard Fausset and Rick Rojas of The New York Times reported that a lawyer working for a Mississippi state agency trying to retrieve the misused money was fired on Friday after issuing a subpoena that would have revealed details about both Bryant and Favre’s involvement in the case.
The lawyer, J. Brad Pigott, discussed his removal from the case during a phone interview with those Times reporters on Saturday. He told them he was given no reason for his dismissal, but suspects it’s over the subpoena he issued.
“I believe I was fired as a result of a pattern of orders from the Mississippi governor’s office concerning protecting an entity, called the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, from any responsibility in this matter,” said Pigott.
Those are pretty strong words. But many around the NFL world seem to agree with Pigott, and think that his firing was certainly not a moral decision.