Jackson Jambalaya

Welp this investigation is officially done.
Post all of Jones Walker’s state contracts while you are at it, KF.
How can they possibly be objective here?

Good move by the governor. While I do not know about Ms. Pickett's skills, JW has solid business lawyers based upon my experience with them. Plus, the deeper bench will be more formidable (and expensive) than Pigott. JW has numerous democrats (at least the ones I knew who are much older than Ms. Pickett) and some republicans but this will not be a political endeavor for JW. (This begins with an administrative law question which JW can handle. If JW sees a violation of handling public funds, it should be game, set, match for the state and simply negotiation for return of the most money available form defendants.)

Having said that, I liked Pigott as the choice. I do not know him but his being a democrat offered a degree of impartiality. Plus, I've perceived him to be a capable street-fighting lawyer. Not afraid to rumble.

I hope JW does well and let the chips fall where they may.
RMQ

What is the purpose of the foxes hiring who guards the hen house. Are we that stupid! A waste of money time and resources.

Hand all information to the Feds and let the dice roll.

Geez really!

I know, I know. we got all this money to spend!

The question I have is will the new attorneys get the hint and leave Tate's political supporters alone.

Will they, or will they not pursue the subpoena(s) the Pigott served (and which got him fired)? If not, this deal is rotten.

Just about as good as buying the judge. When you pay a lawyer they are going to do and find what you want them to find. The last lawyer didn't listen to the people who bought him. This new lawyer should know who is paying the bill and act accordingly.

Actions speak louder than words. If Jones Walker doesn't pick up where Brad Piggott left off, someone will have to answer to an obstruction of justice charge.

Nice effort to continue labeling this as the “Nancy New” case, KF. Your efforts to shield this thing away from certain people involved are evident. In any other time and under other circumstances you’d be hammering away on Phil. Who won’t let you further expose Tate? What narrative are you trying to help drive?

How so?

Ms Wolfe has a damn good source for the Phil stuff. Why don't you go talk to her source and tell the source to give them to me. In case you didn't notice, and I'm sure you did, I did reprint her stories on Phil Bryant over here.

I've broke my share of stories on this scandal and in fact, go look at the time stamps. I was the first one to break news of the indictments and arrests.

What exactly is evident? Do you have some info on the Governor the rest of us don't have? I reprinted her story today.

Why don't you give some proof instead of making up stuff.

Jones Walker will do an excellent job. No, I do not work there.

I second 1:53, how many state contracts have Jones Walker been awarded by the governors? I need more proof on why they are Not biased and nor have a conflict of interest to handle this investigation.

My earlier comment wasn’t printed because I said Tate should remove himself from this investigation because of the appearance of him protecting his friends at USM and now his collusion with Paul L. This will also won’t get printed because of KF protecting Tate from any collusion in this mess. This whole thing stinks.

Brad Pig Ott’s old firm (used to be Watkins Ludlum) —FYI

No offense, but Katie Pickett is just an average lawyer at best. And as for Jones Walker, just remember our cowboy hat wearing Ag Commissioner was at that firm. The marijuana think was a no-brainer. Everyone knew it was a problem with the initiative process, including the Legislature. All she did was make an argument that everyone already knew about. Mark my words, Pickett and the firm will back away from who they are told to leave alone. Bryant, Farve, and Tater-Tot are all safe now.

We should really get one of those “attorney generals” like they have in other states. Apparently, these “attorney general’s offices” are led by an “attorney general” who is so experienced and capable, that his or her office is able to handle stuff like this for the state. I wonder what that is like?

"This is old news. What difference at this point does it make?"

Jones Walker is a great choice from the taxpayers' point of view. They have first-class attorneys and they are large enough that they are not going to affected by political pressure from either side.

There is a criminal investigation to hold the criminals accountable. On the civil side, the team at Jones Walker will be much better at recovering misspent money than Brad Pigott. Also, they will not have Mississippi Today reporters on speed dial, leaking every aspect of the civil case and damaging the criminal one. Pigott was a political hack. Jones Walker will be pros.

When I saw the headline, I thought to myself, please be Kaytie Pickett. Kaytie might be the best attorney against whom I have ever litigated. If Kaytie gives this her all, then the State of Mississippi is in good hands.

I could be wrong on this, but my sense is that Ms. Pickett is actually a good person with integrity. But this is going to be a different level of pressure, to say the least.

I have litigated against Katie. She is spooky smart and great on her feet. Frankly, I can’t think of a lawyer who would do a better job, given they fired Brad, a move stunk to high heaven.

Now, I don’t know her politics, but I do know her to be professional and honest.

Do you really think that Tater would fire an attorney he couldn't control and replace him with attorneys that he cannot control?

https://www.sunherald.com/news/politics-government/article264408171.html

This corruption permeates our current administration, and our AG is very complicit in it.

I am in the legal field and have never heard anyone describe Katie Pickett as "average."She is considered very good-great.

law firms get hired by government based on political connections, not abilities. is it so hard for you to understand?

2:30PM says it all in his first sentence. No other comments needed!

This case doesn’t require an entire legal team……especially when the client dictates that you can’t sue people who are culpable

What a joke

Bet the feds are looking at this and prob tate too

Kaytie is a great lawyer and her ethics are beyond reproach.

The civil suit will go nowhere as it pertains to getting money back from any defendants who did indeed misspend it, if it was misspent at all. At this time, there are still more unknowns than knowns. Shad’s audit appears suspect in some respects and if you read it closely, it basically says he couldn’t tell what the hell was going on so it called it all fraud and abuse. Major problem with Shad’s audit and actions is his glaring omission of anything involving Phil and Tate which looks really really bad now for him. Same with CLA, except that audit was apparently limited by the powers that be. The State is responsible for paying any misused funds back to the Feds.

Tate fully understands he now faces indictment by the feds. With his termination of federal rental assistance, which he branded a "socialist experiment", he telegraphed his main re-election campaign strategy of running against Washington. That always works. Plays very well in Trumplandia.

I know that Jones Walker has talented capable people that can get to the bottom of this mess. The question is , what does their client (Gov Reeves ) want them to do?

Tate fully understands he now faces indictment by the feds.

Total bullshit.

Does Colette represent all 3 of those cases mentioned above?

9:45pm: That is what you guys said about Phil.

You can't get blood out of a turnip-

@7:52 AM, tell us specifically what Reeves will be indicted for. Don't be a wussy, define the specific crime he has committed.

Not sure how Tate is vulnerable. He was building roads and attending out-of-country soccer games when all this went down.

I'm in total agreement that Pigott should not have been dismissed, and would like to see Bryant and Favre further pursued, but, at the end of the day, all a client has to say is 'we made a decision to not renew the contract'. End of story.

The money has all been pissed away--the well is dry.
This litigation will proceed on principle alone-taxpayer's principle.

@7:52 AM, still waiting. What will be the charges filed against Reeves?

Personally, I think Shad’s got bigger issues than Tate. Tate fired a lawyer who he had authority to fire. Shad appears to have had a roll in a targeted coverup. Two very different things.

Of course, the civil suit may indeed disclose they’re all screwed which would suit me just fine.

Meanwhile, Gerard is still trying to score yet another 'board position' by linking up with Auditor White to study brain drain', of which there's no hard evidence. If my count is right, that would 27 board positions in all, obviously, with speaking parts.

And accountants on the golf course tell Gerard hiring additional IRS agents is a waste of money. Between those guys and medical golfers, the world's problems are solved.

I’ve never had anything positive to say about Tater Tot or ignert Phil or Howdy Doody White, and I never will. Kingfish has always posted everything I’ve ever had to say about the three of them. I don’t think he protects them. Just my opinion. I’ll probably be adding nauseating Lynn Fitch to the above trio above.

OK, 12:12, you seem to have shut down 7:52. You can tell Tate no worries.

Funniest thing to me is TeleSouth grabbing its ankles for Shad. The entity was cited for receiving improper TANF funds, yet it’s been left out of the civil complaint as well. This is bigger to me than Southern Miss, money side. It’s political BS. This is the conservative mouthpiece for the State of Mississippi that is being ignored in this civil complaint and no one is saying anything about it. In fact, Shad is on there damn near weekly spewing his narcissistic garbage. What a damn joke.

Which is the bigger amount that was defrauded from the Mississippi taxpayers, the MDOC/Chris Epps scandal or the DHS/TANF scandal - both with the same Governor, correct? Has that been compared in the media?

It seems that the Attorney Generals Office prefers to hire outside law firms to recover money owned to the state. Is this task beyond the capabilities and expertise of state employees working for the people of Mississippi in the State Attorney General's office? I guess so. So, instead of recovering perhaps all the state is owed, a private law firm gets a 25-30% cut of what they manage to recover. No one is above the law. Charge everyone regardless of whether they donated to anyone running for state office.