This post is authored and sponsored by the Tate Reeves for Governor campaign.
Mississippi Today is preparing to release a false hit piece on Governor Tate Reeves' brother. Their mischaracterization, per outreach from Mississippi Today received by the campaign, is that Todd Reeves' communications are under scrutiny by the state auditor related to the TANF case based on texts that were "gathered" by the state auditor. Apparently, Mississippi Today initially received these texts from an anonymous source, possibly by illegal means, but went to court to have the State Auditor provide them through a public records request. The auditor's office denied that request under their broad exemption for records that are related to investigations as is their standard policy. The texts in question, which are revealed in full here, show Todd Reeves connecting Brett Favre and Auditor Shad White to help coordinate the repayment of funds. There is nothing that implies Todd was involved beyond helping the state to recover misspent dollars.
A statement from Todd Reeves is below:
"I've been friendly with Brett for years, and always heard great things about Shad. I didn't learn anything about this TANF mess or Brett's dealings with the state until it was front page news. When Brett was considering repaying the funds, he asked me if I could help him get in touch with the auditor to coordinate that--so that's what I did. I helped money get back in the right hands, not the wrong hands, and I think that's what most people would have done. Brett believed he had done nothing wrong, and I helped convince him to return the money anyway. Those are the texts in question. I know Mississippi Today is willing to lie about us, so I just wanted to get the truth out."
Other key claims by liberal nonprofit group Mississippi Today on this issue have been disproven, and they have routinely attempted to tie Tate Reeves to the scandal without any evidence or admission that all of the relevant events happened before his time as governor. They have routinely misreported key elements of the case or hyped innuendo with no factual basis in order to assist their preferred candidate for governor. Mississippi Today revealed that they knew the true context of the texts in question, but were preparing to release a more hysterical story where they would imply some involvement in the misspending of the TANF funds--rather than the repayment of ill-gotten funds. This is exactly how they routinely operate, hiding the truth and leaning on innuendo and lies.
