Brett Favre seeks dismissal of state's case after suits against Pat McAfee, Shannon Sharpe

Brett Favre on Friday filed a motion to dismiss the case against him by the Mississippi Department of Human Services to recover misspent public funds.

"There is no factual or legal basis to include Favre in this lawsuit — in which MDHS seeks to recover public funds it misspent — and no justification for the defamatory torrent of negative publicity concerning Favre that MDHS has instigated and other have propagated — negative publicity that properly should be directed not at Favre, but at MDHS and those responsible for spending and monitoring its funds," the motion states.

On Thursday, the former NFL quarterback and Gulfport native filed defamation suits against State Auditor Shad White and sports commentators Shannon Sharpe and Pat McAfee.

Mississippi is suing Favre in a civil case that seeks to recover misspent welfare money.

The University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation is one of 10 parties the Mississippi Department of Human Services is seeking to sue in an expanding lawsuit that it hopes will recoup millions of dollars of welfare funds lost in the largest public fraud in state history.

Favre files defamation suits:Brett Favre files defamation lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe, Pat McAfee and Shad White

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264 - 2023-02-10 - B. Favre Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint w Memorandum by USA TODAY Network on Scribd

Southern Miss is linked to the alleged fraud scheme through one of its most notable alums, the former Golden Eagles quarterback and pro football hall of famer Favre, who is mentioned directly in the amended complaint to the lawsuit.

In response to the lawsuit, White's media relations director Fletcher Freeman released the following 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. Mr. Favre has called Auditor White and his team liars despite repaying some of the money our office demanded from him. He’s also claimed the auditors are liars despite clear documentary evidence showing he benefitted from misspent funds. 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.”

The suit against Sharpe, who now works in sports media, but is a NFL Hall of Fame tight end states that Sharpe published defamatory statements of purported fact, referring specifically to Favre, by name, on an episode of his television show, Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.

On that show, in September of 2022, Sharpe said, "The problem I have with this situation, you've got to be a sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low."

McAfee is a former college football kicker and punter at West Virginia. He, most recently, has made a name for himself as an analyst on ESPN's College GameDay. He also has a show called the Pat McAfee Show.

In Friday's motion to dismiss the state lawsuit, his motion states:

"It is apparent that MDHS has sued Favre, a Mississippi and national celebrity, to try to deflect responsibility for its own egregious wrongdoing in allowing tens of millions of dollars of its public funds to be misspent — funds for which MDHS itself admits it was “exclusively responsible.”

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Brett Favre welfare case dismissal sought after McAfee, Sharpe suits