Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre filed lawsuits Thursday in Mississippi, accusing the state auditor and two national sportscasters of defaming him in public discussions about the misspending of welfare money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation, the AP reports. The lawsuit against Auditor Shad White says he “carried out an outrageous media campaign of malicious and false accusations against Brett Favre—the Hall of Fame quarterback and native son of Mississippi—in a brazen attempt to leverage the media attention generated by Favre’s celebrity to further his own political career." In a separate lawsuit against former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, Favre said Sharpe made “egregiously false” statements about him on the Fox Sports talk show Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, including that Favre “stole money from people that really needed money.”
And in another lawsuit against retired NFL player Pat McAfee, Favre said McAfee had used “outrageous falsehoods” that included calling Favre a “thief” who was “stealing from poor people in Mississippi.” The lawsuit Favre filed against the auditor Thursday accuses White of “shamelessly and falsely attacking Favre’s good name” to gain attention for himself, “including appearances on television shows on CNN and HBO, a popular ESPN podcast, as well as interviews for print and online media. None of these national media outlets would have paid White the slightest attention had he not been attacking Favre."
Fletcher Freeman, a spokesman for White, said in a statement: ”Everything Auditor White has said about this case is true and is backed by years of audit work by the professionals at the Office of the State Auditor. It’s mind-boggling that Mr. Favre wants to have a trial about that question." Freeman also said that Favre has called White and the auditor's team liars, despite repaying some of the money the auditor's office demanded from him. “He’s also claimed the auditors are liars despite clear documentary evidence showing he benefitted from misspent funds,” Freeman said. "Instead of paying New York litigators to try this case, he’d be better off fully repaying the amount of welfare funds he owes the state.”
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