Thursday, February 6, 2020

Feds on DHS Scandal: Don't Look at Us

The Justice Department issued the following statement.


The U.S. Attorney’s Office has received numerous inquiries regarding the State Auditor’s investigation into the Mississippi Department of Human Services and local indictments returned by a Hinds County grand jury in that case.

While we commend the reported actions, neither the FBI nor the United States Attorney’s Office was contacted by the State Auditor or the Hinds County District Attorney about this investigation, although millions of federal dollars are alleged to have been stolen.

After hearing about the investigation, I reached out to the State Auditor and met with him last week to inquire into this matter. I subsequently spoke with the District Attorney about this matter as well. While information about this investigation was made available to us on Tuesday, we in the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI only learned on Wednesday afternoon from media reports about the indictment and arrests, at the same time as the general public did.

Investigating and prosecuting cases of this magnitude and complexity is routinely what the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Offices do here in Mississippi and around the country. In the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi we have a long, successful record of working with our local and state law enforcement, prosecuting public corruption and complex white collar fraud, and bringing all who violate the law to justice.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI continue to have good working relationships with the new State Auditor, the new Hinds County District Attorney, and their offices. We stand ready to put the substantial experience and expertise of our offices and the entire U.S. Department of Justice to work to help our colleagues bring fraudsters to justice and stamp out public corruption.”

Kingfish note: Wow.  Does this mean Mississippi investigated its own stuff?

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Translation: Shad White and Jody Owens successfully prevented us from Big Footing their investigation.

Anonymous said...

Was or is someone being investigated close to Jim Hood?

Anonymous said...

Shad is on the ball...so is all of this crime and misspending of monies new news...or is Shad the only State Auditor that works?

Anonymous said...

I'm going to jump on the conspiracy theorists' bandwagon on this one, and say that the MS "findings" are to take down the small fries to cover for the big fish.

Anonymous said...

What possible reason would there be for not looping in federal authorities?

Other than being a 35-year-old aspiring governor who wants a big press conference to himself?

Anonymous said...

Attn 2:37 PM And the fact that Mississippi is blessed with the one of the most intelligent and highest educated (Harvard law and Rhodes Scholar) public servants in the country.

Kim Wade said...

2:37

Hello Mike.

Anonymous said...

Are they REQUIRED to notify them or is it a courtesy call? I personally would handle it the way Shad did. I’m glad he got his ducks in a row before making it public. If he had squealed and was wrong, they’d have made him look foolish while burning all his bridges in MS. Good job SA’s office!! Y’all (and the whistleblower) deserve the credit!!

For Lack Of Evidence said...

The writer of this memo says 'we' and 'I' but never identifies him/her self. Who the hell wrote this?

But, I must agree. Turning something of this magnitude over to a Hinds County D.A. is fucking ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Kim Wade: Mike Who? Put up!

Anonymous said...

The U.S. Attorney got his panties in a wad over this. Poor baby. You didn't want to share any of the publicity with the other children . . .

Anonymous said...

Shad starting to remind me of a former young state auditor named Ray Mabus. Different party, same approach.

Anonymous said...

Based on the Southern District's track record, (Epps, Lamar Adams, Ivan) if the feds handled it, they would have charged Davis with one count of wire fraud then used him to throw the book at the bookkeeper.

Glad Shad is actually going after big fish and not the other way around.

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone didn't want the feds to go indicting people during Phil's final days further tarnishing what looks to be the most corrupt state administration in history.

Anonymous said...

Rhodes and Harvard are irrelevant when you have common sense. Maybe White really is one, kind of blue collar, who understands that some things can be handled without help. Kind of reminds me of the attorneys who charge $800 to form an LLC for a poor individual who could’ve done it himself for $50.00. Smaller scale, but same thing. If you’re competent, get it done. Nice job.

Anonymous said...

3:51 barfs up the same hyperbole yet again.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Auditors Office and DA. A win win for the State and County.

Anonymous said...

What does Mike Hurst actually do? He's not prosecuted the big fish from the Siemens deal, Ponzi/Butler Snow/Baker Donelson affair...and now he claims he wasn't even looking at this scheme. All he seems to care about is arresting african americans in Project Eject and arresting illegal chicken workers in Forest. The big fish who are actually stealing are let go or not prosecuted. These facts are indisputable.

Time to hold him accountable as his record seems to have a racial slant. Wonder how much the big fish donated to state republicans? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Anonymous said...

Sounds just like what Pakistan said after the US went in and killed Osama Bin Laden. Maybe Herst wasn’t notified because of the potential political damage to others elephants in the room that he knows and runs elbows with.

Anonymous said...

Poor little Mikey Hurst. He jumps at every chance for headlines to further a political career post U S Attorney days. Now he’s upset cause Shad beat him to the punch.

Anonymous said...

Shad wanted a tight lid on this to protect Gov. Bryant from being part of the investigation.

Anonymous said...

Or, Shad kept quiet to keep Phil from finding out and alerting people. Connect the Dots, Families First, and DHS all held hands and sang red rover to the other agencies.

Anonymous said...

the feds have the authority and the ability to jump in and take this case away form the state faster than you can say shad white. and they probably will. you dont upstage the feds. they get the last word in everything.

Anonymous said...

You think Hinds County DA office is equipped to handle this? LMFAO! J.O. is about to be humiliated!

Louis LeFleur said...

"Sang red rover to the other agencies," 12:50? I don't get that one. Don't think they wanted anyone else to "come on over" and join their game. More likely they were singing Kumbaya. We're talking about DHS after all.

Anonymous said...

"Shad wanted a tight lid on this to protect Gov. Bryant from being part of the investigation.February 6, 2020 at 10:05 PM"

Here, 10:05; I fixed it for you:

Shad wanted a tight like on this to PREVENT Gov. Bryant from being part of the investigation.

Although neither the previous nor present governor are named Hood, the previous one damned sure WAS one. He has run with the largest circle of questionable actors ever known in Mississippi politics.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dummies: Federal money = Federal Attorney. Seems either a) a don’t want to share the spotlight issue or b) a protecting a bigger phish issue.

Anonymous said...

Agree 8:48 am and apparently there is no " learning curve" in government or the minds of the public.

We were supposed to learn from 9/11 that the lack of cooperation and toxic competitiveness between government agencies can get citizens killed.

But, the male ego, too often,has no boundaries and politicians seem particularly unable to admit there could be some area of expertise they haven't mastered. As a result, the annoying details that lead to disaster easily escapes them.

Kingfish said...

Shad protecting Governor? Former Gov wasn't happy about Dowdy investigation and made his feelings known to the State Auditor, all to no avail.

Anonymous said...

The real public servants are the one’s who turned the information over. It’s called integrity and intestinal fortitude. The OSA knows nothing without the people who put a stop to this.

Anonymous said...

Former Gov. has a long list of agency director appointments that didn't work out very well (i.e. corruption and/or incompetence exposed). But, his boots were always shined well.

Anonymous said...

@8:23 let me clarify myself. The former First Lady’s initiative to Connect the Dots, or link services was deeply rooted in DHS and FF, but there was a push for various other agencies to apply for grants/funding which would funnel to FF to provide services and manage the programs created through those grant dollars.

Davis had a big push for divisions within DHS to partner with other agencies on grant proposals. The kicker was that there had better be a way to loop FF into the project, some way. Even when these projects made no logistical or financial sense.

Red Rover Red Rover Send Your Dollars on Over

Cynical Sam said...

Grants = bribing the taxpayers with their own money.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish...Who implied Shad was 'protecting the former governor'? Some of us(probably correctly) think Shad kept a lid on it to keep people like the former governor from gumming it up.

Personally, I'm happy to see this dot connecting attached to 'the former governor's' legacy. After all, legacy is primarily opinion and perception.

Anonymous said...

@ 6;24 —didn’t you read Sid Salter glowing report on Feel’s legacy.He was great because he once was a Rankin County deputy. Maybe that was back in the day when the Gold Coast was economic development.For those on this blog that makes comments before searching history look up Gold Coast in Rankin.You may also want to look up Governor Cliff Finch .He may give Boots a run for his money for being the worst Governor since Barnett made us famous.Feel’s legacy is yet to be written—but the pen is still writing.

Anonymous said...

I was not in MS during the Finch election. I have not been involved in politics during the Bryant term. But, from what little I can discern from both while Finch was much better educated all Bryant needed to match him was a lunch pale & heart shaped bathtub. Very embarrassing. But, MS can have educated, sophisticated governors ever bit as corrupt. For a state that considers itself in the Bible Belt with a church on every corner, this is a very corrupt state. Folks, just because a guy goes to church, teaches SS, sings in the choir does not a Christian make.

Anonymous said...

11:03 you make a very good point. I suspect you will be attacked by the many pagans on this board. I think I can help with your problem. Broad is the way ,but narrow is the gate. Many will say Lord, Lord, but I never knew them. Contrary to what so very many pagans say, Christians are to judge. Christians are to judge according to the Bible. One will truly know a Christian by their actions, not their words. So when you see a politician that just recently became regular in church, see how he has been living, see what kind of fruit he produced with his children. There is a lot of responsibility that goes into voting. If you are not adequately informed, don’t vote. But more importantly, get informed.


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