Phil Bryant helps Brett Favre raise welfare money for volleyball stadium
The transcript allegedly shows Favre, New and Bryant providing a means of transferring at least $5 million to a volleyball stadium in South Mays, where Favre is playing college football and his daughter is playing volleyball at the time some of the texts were sent.
“If you are going to pay me, will any media be able to find out where it came from and at what price?” The transcript shows that Favre asked for a new one in 2017. He replied that “this information was never published” and told him the next day, “Wow, I just hung up on Phil Bryant! He’s joining us! We will finish this!”
In a July 2019 text, Bryant said recently that he had just met Favre and asked if he could help him.
Favre’s lawyer denied that his client knew he had received welfare money. “Brett Favre has been an honor over the years,” Bud Holmes told Mississippi Today. In 2020, Favre told the outlet that he had not discussed the stadium, which was not part of the state lawsuit, with Bryant.
No criminal charges were filed against Favre and Bryant, who left office in January 2020, and Bryant did not discuss the transcript in a statement to Mississippi today. In it, Neo’s defense team accused him of “concerning more pre-trial propaganda than civil justice.” New’s proposal is the first direct and public accusation of wrongdoing by Bryant.
Last year’s favorite State paid $600,000. He has received speeches he never got as part of the $1.1 million deals he made in 2017 and 2018 to promote anti-poverty initiatives. State auditors reported that initially, he paid $500,000. And in May, the Mississippi Department of Human Services sued Favre, saying $1.1 million in interest was $228,000.
The state is prohibited from using funds from the Federal Temporary Assistance Program for Needy Families on “brick and mortar” buildings, and attempts to circumvent federal regulations for building volleyball courts have led to criminal penalties.
Zack Neo, son of Nancy Neo, was admitted in an April agreement for defrauding the government when he was involved in a scheme “to disguise USM construction projects as ‘leases’ as a way to circumvent a strict ban on limited purpose grants against ‘brick and mortar’ construction projects that violate the Miss Code. Ann 97-7-10.”
Favre was questioned more than two years ago by the FBI, Mississippi reported today last week. Holmes told the outlet that Favre was asked one question and he believes Favre has not been interviewed since. The Mississippi Community Education Center hired Favre Enterprises in 2017 and 2018 to appear in promoting Family First for Mississippi, a program designed to help families in need, and Favre did not attend.
In 2020, the former NFL quarterback denied he was “paid for commitments I didn’t keep,” saying, “I love the State of Mississippi and would never intentionally do anything to take from those who need it most.”
Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the country, with 20.3 percent living below the poverty line, according to the 2019 Survey of the American Community from the U.S. Census Bureau. The national poverty rate in the United States is 13.4 percent.