Phil Bryant — or at least his reputation — is undergoing death by a thousand cuts. Every few weeks brings a new revelation to suggest the former Mississippi governor was not so clueless about the massive welfare scandal taking place in the final years of his administration. He may have been an active participant in part of it.
This week, Mississippi Today reports that new text messages have emerged to show that Bryant was communicating with Brett Favre and Nancy New — all University of Southern Mississippi alums — about how to steer welfare funding controlled by Bryant’s Department of Human Services to help build a new volleyball stadium at USM.
In past interviews, Bryant has said he was aware of Favre’s pet project but he had little direct knowledge of how the former NFL quarterback was coming up with the money to make it happen.
Monday’s court filing by the attorney representing New and the nonprofit she ran, which became a conduit for tens of millions of dollars of the alleged misspending, paints a different picture.
It includes text messages between Bryant, Favre and New that indicate the former governor knew a lot more of what was going on than he has acknowledged. One text shows that Bryant, a former state auditor well familiar with federal regulations, was coaching New through Favre on how to write a funding proposal that would be approved by the state Department of Human Services, which was doling out the federal block grant money. Another includes a suggestion that the volleyball stadium be named after Bryant.
The volleyball facility, which received at least $5 million of the welfare funds, involves the largest documented bogus expenditure in the scandal.
But it’s not the only one in which Bryant has become entangled.
There’s also the diversion of welfare funds to another Favre project, a pharmaceutical start-up in which Bryant had agreed to accept a gift of stock when his term as governor ended.
Then there’s the allegation by New, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges, that Bryant directed her to give Favre a $1.1 million welfare contract for speaking engagements that never happened. That money, text messages between Favre and New suggest, was another way to get funding to the volleyball facility at USM.
Maybe New and her attorney are not telling the full story. The text messages released this week are included in a court filing trying to defend New and her company in a civil lawsuit filed by the state to recover tens of millions of dollars from her and others. The texts, according to Mississippi Today’s reporting, are not entire threads of communication but selections picked by New’s attorney to bolster his client’s side in the dispute.
Nevertheless, this steady drip of revelations suggest that someone at the federal or state level should be investigating Bryant to see whether he has any liability for the squandering and theft of money that was supposed to help the poorest of the poor in this state. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, no political friend of the former governor, two months ago asked for just such an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal law enforcement agency has not indicated whether it is doing so.
Bryant has not been charged with a crime, nor has he been sued for any of the misspent funding. If he remains legally off the hook, there needs to be an explanation as to why.
