Brett Favre attempts to add Mississippi Auditor’s book to defamation lawsuit

Former NFL player and Mississippi native Brett Favre has filed a motion to expand his defamation lawsuit against Mississippi State Auditor Shad White.

On Sept. 27, Favre’s legal team submitted a new complaint stating that White’s new book “Mississippi Swindle: Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal that Shocked America,” through its title and within its pages, defamed Favre.

“The book itself falsely states, among other things, that Favre had been ‘taking money he knew should go to people in “shelters,”‘ and had been ‘trying to hide that fact from the media and the public,’ and also accuses Favre of committing the felony of money laundering,” Favre’s attorneys wrote in the Sept. 27 filing.

White’s book was published in early August, and Favre is now the third person featured within who has publicly called into question their portrayal by White. State Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Mississippi GOP Chairman Mike Hurst told reporters in August they considered the book to stretch truths or mischaracterize them entirely.

Favre initially filed the defamation suit against White in 2023 for social media posts calling his character into question and also about a civil case surrounding the Mississippi welfare scandal, in which individuals and companies collectively took millions of dollars from the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds through the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

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Those TANF funds were supposed to be funneled to the state’s poorest and most needy residents, but they weren’t, and Favre has repaid more than $1 million in TANF dollars he received for speaking engagements. White is also suing Favre to pay back about $729,000 in interest he allegedly owes on those funds.

Fitch earlier this year dropped White as a client in the lawsuit with Favre, and White told reporters it was over her office’s portrayal in his book. She is also suing to block White from trying to reclaim the interest funds, saying White does not possess the authority to sue Favre.

Favre has not been criminally charged, but In 2023, the state also named Favre as one of 38 defendants in a civil case filed by the Mississippi Department of Human Service aiming to reclaim about $77 million in misspent TANF funds, $5 million of which paid for a new volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.