Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is off the air at 94.5 amid a $70 million Mississippi welfare scandal, sources confirm to TMJ4 News.
Favre's regular appearance on WKTI-FM (94.5) is now paused. Good Karma Brands and ESPN Milwaukee previously announced Favre would join the station's shows regularly throughout the 2022-2023 NFL season beginning Aug. 29. The 30-minute interviews were set to air every Monday morning on ESPN Milwaukee's "Jen, Gabe & Chewy," according to WTMJ.
Favre allegedly received millions for his start-up company and for speeches he never gave from the nation's poorest state. Favre has not been accused of a crime or charged.
According to NBC, Mississippi paid Favre $1.1 million in 2017 and 2018 to give speeches - out of federal welfare funds intended for needy families. The state's auditor is demanding the money back with interest. NBC reports Favre has paid back the fees, but not the $228,000 in interest.
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Favre's lawyer, Bud Holmes, tells NBC he did nothing wrong and never understood he was paid with federal welfare funds. The Associated Press previously reported Favre denied he was paid for events he didn't attend and said his charity provided millions to poor children in both Mississippi and Wisconsin.
The former governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, helped Favre get welfare funds to build a volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi, a report from Mississippi Today revealed last week.
The report cites text messages filed in the state's lawsuit over misspent welfare funds. The text messages were filed by an attorney representing Nancy New, who has pleaded guilty for her role in the welfare scheme. Nancy New and her son once ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi that spent millions of dollars in federal welfare funds to help the state.
According to Mississippi Today reporting, the text messages show Favre, Bryant, and New discussed how to move $5 million in welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre played at Southern Miss and his daughter was a volleyball player there at the time some of the text messages were sent.
Holmes told Mississippi Today that he denied knowing about the welfare funds. "Brett Favre has been honorable throughout this whole thing," Holmes said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
