This post is a reprint of Anna Wolfe's story in Mississippi Today.
Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson said he took attorney Brad Pigott off the state’s ongoing civil lawsuit in the welfare scandal because Pigott didn’t consult with the agency before filing a recent subpoena that named the former governor.
But a July 1 email obtained by Mississippi Today shows Pigott sent a draft copy of the subpoena to both the Attorney General’s Office and the welfare agency’s general counsel — 10 days before he filed it. On July 11, Pigott filed a subpoena on the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation for its communication with several key players in the case, including former Gov. Phil Bryant and retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre. He also subpoenaed Supertalk, a high-powered conservative talk radio network, for interviews with defendants in the suit. The athletic department had received $5 million in welfare funds from the embattled nonprofit founder Nancy New to build a new volleyball stadium on behalf of Favre — the single largest known purchase in the scandal. But the USM Athletic Foundation and Supertalk, both of which received welfare payments that auditors have questioned, were not named as defendants in the lawsuit. “Please look over these DRAFT subpoenas to 2 non-parties, which you and I have talked about only generally,” Pigott wrote in the July 1 email to Assistant Attorney General Stephen Schelver, copying MDHS attorney Patrick Black. “Let me know if you have edits.” On Friday, the week after Pigott filed the subpoenas and Mississippi Today first published them, MDHS abruptly removed him from the case. Rest of article.
52 comments:
This has run its course. Contract is up. See ya Brad.
Please let the Feds come get these hayseeds.
Bob and Brad this shit ain’t worth losing a friendship over! If you weren’t benefiting financially you would not touch this mess the former administration created!
Enjoy the fruits of your labor, MDHS will survive without you two!
I am sick and tired of reading about state employees ( I call them “wards” of the state) wasting money from the poorest state in the nation as they would like for you to believe their character forces them to spend. Those that can, do, those that can’t work for the government.
I’ll need to see all the attorney /client privileged and confidential communications before I make up my mind.
Since both sides are waiving those rights maybe Anna Wolfe can subpoena them next week.
This is Mississippi. You having receipts matters not.
11:52 clueless. everybody else stock up on the popcorn for the usm/lobaki/longwitz show, starring the tater-fitch mind trust. will it be a drama? a comedy? a horror show? Tune in to find out.
12:29 PM
All three!
Can we all agree that “popcorn” and “steel cage” comments long ago lost any humor or cleverness value ?
Parties with cross claims can subpoena these records and find out the truth.
Firing Brad won’t stop this now
How many more times will Bob Anderson "take one for the team" before he quits in disgust? Reeves is Machiavellian; Anderson is not. Left alone, White, Pigott and Anderson could clean house in this disastrous matter. Not going to happen.
Shad White just used up a lot of GOP good will, but he is right to do so. Anna Wolfe is a good reporter, and has been doing a terrific job looking under all of the rocks, but her near obsession with nailing White along with Bryant has badly gone awry.
This is a rich vein, Kingfish. Bring in the heavy equipment.
1:16, Which makes me wonder why non-renew? Did they think Brad would go quietly into the night? The smarter play is keeping him employed with his hands tied. Who’s running this show?
One wonders who the political operatives, err lobbyists, are as referenced in Pigott’s comments.
No point sending socialized federal teat milk money down here, we like girls' volleyball more than subsidizing the poverty of widdas an orphans, so cut 75% of federal bureaucracy, cut federal taxes, let private enterprise create opportunities for prosperity and raise all ships.
1:49 is right. And it’s an important point. Better to not have Pigott outside the tent pissing in. Didn’t need to fire him to hire big firm and effectively sideline him. It’s amateur hour. Everyone involved in that decision is playing tic tak toe.
Looks like people are not as stirred up with the x-governor and a foot ball player stealing $10 million as they are about the woman who stole enough to pay a cell phone bill.
Pigott brought receipts.
Someone’s lying. I don’t think it is he.
Really any reporter receiving insider information and leaked documents could have written this story.
Darn, I just realized Bryant is a crook🥸
11:52, An attorney who has entered an appearance as counsel of record remains counsel of record until the court signs an order removing him as counsel of record. He continues to have a responsibility to his client and the court to continue representation, until his representation is formally terminated.
Attorney employment in litigation is not a typical business contract.
@1:49 PM - they stirred up the hornets nest and just brought more attention to themselves.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." (The Art of War - Sun Zhu)
These clowns were too ignorant to realize that they hired an attorney who is very experienced in complex civil and criminal investigations and was and did dig up dirt/skeletons. It's like don't ask a question if you don't know the answer.
Considering the catch of Shad White's fishing net, we could cut bureaucrat embezzlement in half by first cutting bureaucracy in half. Eliminate every other county in MS, lumping alternate counties into the one adjacent to it all over the state, with some combining three counties into one.
All costs of embezzling, auditing, investigation, prosecution and incarceration can be halved, as well as all other County government costs. Additionally, we would all be entertained firing thousands of bureaucrats, forcing them to get real jobs that contribute rather than waste and steal revenue.
people like 11:52 and the "hey look over there!" crowd are desperate to make this go away.
Q: How does firing Brad Pigott fit with the so-called Modified Limited Hangout?
A: That description is no longer operative.
The Naked Gun - "Nothing to see here!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKnX5wci404
Go ahead and give the feds what they have and let them handle it. Pretty clear a coverup from the highest levels of state government is underway. I wonder if Tater has already signed the pardons?
We should go ahead and appoint Anna Wolfe as honorary state auditor. Clearly Shad needs to hand over the reigns to someone not so politically entangled in this massive fraud.
The only problem with Anna Wolfe is her impatience. She took the BS Shad shoveled her in the beginning hook, line and sinker. Her original stories were pointed at the wrong people. No one ever stopped to think that many of the accusations in Shad’s original audit report may just be incorrect, perhaps deliberately. Maybe Anna realizes that now, maybe not. Either way, her desire to get the scoop helped perpetrate Shad and Company’s original story. I think she’s a smart girl, but she still only has so much information available to her and until other people start talking, the story is what it is.
So what exactly is Mr. Phil Bryant guilty of?
“If we are not careful we go to war with the wrong people” to the Director at MDHS. Be careful don’t sell your soul to the devil for that high 4!
Word is, you are a good and honorable man.
@8:55 He’s guilty of being a douche bag for starters.
There is nothing wrong with a few good people receiving $94 million in welfare benefits. That money would otherwise have gone to people who might have bought lobster and steaks.
8:55: I’m not sure yet, but there sure is a lot of smoke around him. It merits further investigation, instead of a DHS-commissioned audit, the scope of which DHS restricted. Firing Pigott for serving a subpoena regarding a $5 million volleyball court paid for with welfare money looks like a cover-up as well. Trying to paint him as the whistleblower on a $100 case, when he really just turned Davis in for a $45,000 check stinks too.
Based on Bryant’s text messages, I’m thinking some form of conspiracy to defraud.
What we have here is a vast right wing conspiracy.
Any friends of Phil here, tell him to request the lockup at Oakdale, they have the best food. Avoid Beaumont and Montgomery at all cost!
The problem with trying to nail the governor or any other high government executive is that they are surrounded by people who desperately want to please them. All the official has to do is make an innocuous suggestion and it gets carried out as if it were a direct order. Innocuous suggestions aren’t against the law, and that’s all they’re going to find on Phil.
The real victims here are the juicy crab owners. Millions lost in revenue
Kingfish done got in bed with Mississippi Today. That's like Haley Barbour getting in bed with Bennie Thompson.
@6:36am
"Only innocuous suggestions against Bryant"? What about the quid pro quo kickback of stock from Favre's new company arranged for Bryant right after Bryant left office?
Can we talk about how Frank Corder over at the yall blog can’t keep the Establishment’s wiener out of his mouth…. It’s like he doesn’t even care that there was a whole scheme in place ran by the former gov. For a blog that attempts to be a real news outlet, they sure don’t do a good job of it.
@8:55 - it sure looks like he will eventually be hit with some combination of fraud, bribery, and embezzlement charges. Hell, there could even be RICO charges considering the level of corruption.
July 25, 2022 at 6:36 AM
You are exactly right.
Going way, way back (1979?) Elizabeth Drew wrote a book about the late U.S. Senator from Iowa, John Culver. There is a quote in the book about lobbyists meeting with politicians saying something like . . . "we would appreciate it very much if your could see your way clear to vote. . . " such and such a way on a particular issue. Sorry, I don't remember the exact quotation.
Original Title
Senator
by Elizabeth Drew
ISBN
0671253948 (ISBN13: 9780671253943)
"All the official has to do is make an innocuous suggestion and it gets carried out as if it were a direct order."
Excellent description of how most of Mississippi's corrupt bureaucracy operates. Threats, silence, innuendos, etc. are used to force people into complicity with bullshit schemes.
Organized Crime still working it's magic in Mississippi.
Can't make this chit up!
It is certainly not happenstance that John Grisham is from Mississippi.
"All the official has to do is make an innocuous suggestion and it gets carried out as if it were a direct order."
Except Favre was talking directly to Bryant, as were others. Those text messages speak for themselves. Nice try
@6:36 thanks Joey.
@12:57 pm
well actually that is a correct statement at 6:36 am whether the poster is Joey or not.......
Seems like Brad P was doing his job he was to do and someone didn't like it.
Imagine that.
Any man of principle and ethics would do exactly what Pigott did. Truth be known he told the AG's office as well as the Welfare head that he had it on his calendar to depose both Bryant and Favre. He was told to back off. Therein lay the ethics crossroads. He proceeded anyway as a demonstration of his ethics and integrity and let the ashes blow where they might. A man of integrity could no nothing else.
Even in the event he was instructed (earlier on) to not touch Bryant and Favre, his principles could not accept such an ultimatum.
Some don't have a clear conscience this morning. Pigott does.
The remaining question is who exactly decided to can Pigott. Neither Fitch nor the welfare head had the balls or political bravery to make that call. Both of them were and are junior players.
@2:56 am
YES That is what I want to know!
Who did it? Who canned Brad?
2:56
I'm guessing Tater made the call to can Brad. Thieves stick together. He and Phil aren't buds but they are both Republicans I hope we will all see the truth in all this mess.
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