Gov. Phil Bryant screenshotted my tweet below—which touched on my investigation into welfare in the spring of 2019, at the fever pitch of the largest taxpayer theft in state history—and sent it to MDHS Director John Davis. “How is she figuring this?” he asked. #TheBackchannel.

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Imagine you're Nancy New, going down for the crime of the century, and you open @MSTODAYnews to read texts a retired QB sent to the governor about the very scheme sending you to prison. texts you realize the state has had for 2 years and you've never seen.

Officers took a look at the alleged kidnappers — a 330-pound retired NFL player and a longhaired pot grower from California — and “they just went haywire and thought they had something that they just didn’t have.”

Nancy New, key welfare scandal defendant, is offering new accounts in her defense -- such as the Christmas party where Gov. Bryant allegedly "got excited" that the CEO of a company he "had been funding" with welfare $ "offered him 'half the company.'"

So would an exercise program meet the new “reasonable person” standard?. “No,” one expert said, before pausing and then clarifying, “Whose definition of ‘reasonable’?”.

Since TANF’s creation, states have spent billions on non-cash programs, some “with tenuous connections to a TANF purpose” – one generous way to describe the overarching Mississippi welfare scandal. New rules would require purchases to be “reasonable.”

Dang. The Uncertain Hour was a guiding light when I started really digging into the TANF story—a complicated, bureaucratic mess. We need to keep this kind of storytelling around.

A welfare scandal defendant lost up to $30,000 —allegedly partially DHS funds — to an African gold bar scam. It would have taken a family of three 15 years to receive that much in the welfare check — which would have been impossible since the assistance maxes out at five years.

To me, Favre’s deposition Monday represents a new phase of the ongoing civil case, and the larger unfolding scandal, where after a relatively quiet few months, more information may be flowing again. More to come.

To my knowledge, Bryant has not been questioned about why he did not produce years-worth of texts between himself and his former welfare director John Davis, many of which we obtained and published, even though he said he produced them all.

Attorneys for the state have grilled Favre on why he hasn’t produced all relevant text messages that exist, and why his July 16, 2019 text to Bryant may contain conflicting figures.

After Bryant left office in early 2020, just a couple weeks before initial arrests in the scandal, the owner asked to “give you a company package for all your help” and Bryant said, “Sounds good. Where would be the best place to meet.”

(Not to mention, as we reported long before this inquiry began, the texts in which Favre flat out told Bryant he couldn’t be happier about Prevacus receiving the “funding from the State of MS.”)

Possibly more consequential than the payments to the volleyball project, or Favre himself, is Bryant’s involvement in payments to pharma startup Prevacus. This was their exchange on the same day that New sent $400K to the company, per the lawsuit (Jake is Prevacus’ founder):

Favre has argued: How could he know such a deal was illegal or unethical if so many state employees and public officials—all the way up to the governor—were on board? “Governor Bryant was both aware of and supported MCEC’s payments to Prevacus and USMAF.”

What attorneys for the state have failed to highlight is that this was a text to former Gov. Phil Bryant, because Favre constantly looped in the then-governor on his projects. Bryant’s name doesn’t appear once in the state’s 94-page complaint.

Favre allegedly stood to financially benefit from welfare officials funding the volleyball stadium, because he would have had to otherwise use his own money on the project. In this text, he says New and former director John Davis were “saving” him $1.8m.

“Will the public perception be that I became a spokesperson for various state funded shelters, schools, homes, etc…. And was compensated with state money? Or can we keep that confidential,” Favre texted Nancy New, the nonprofit operator who funneled money to his projects.

But we know the claims against Favre rely on texts that, according to lawyers, show he knew the funds were supposed to serve the needy, and that there were restrictions on using the money to erect buildings. Many links to past reporting in our story today:

This is Favre’s first official deposition in the case originally filed in May of 2022. We can’t say exactly what transpired because the transcript is confidential, at least for the time being, under a protective order.