Episode 2: Side Effects May Include Embezzling Taxpayer Money

Rogelio V. Solis/AP

In the late 2010s, things went south – deep south – very quickly in Mississippi with a scandal fit for a football legend. This week on Scandalized, a network of political figures gets caught in misusing funds, but former NFL quarterback Brett Favre offers up the star power to turn it into a national scandal. 

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EPISODE NOTES:

Some key sources used in researching and writing this episode:

• Shad White - Mississippi Swindle, 2024

• Anna Wolfe’s reporting for the Mississippi Today

  • The Backchannel series

  • “‘Increasingly absurd expenditures’: Newly released audit questions $94 million in DHS spending”, May 2020

  • “Nancy New asked officials for help before arrests in welfare scandal”, June 2022

• ESPN - “Brett Favre and the Mississippi welfare case explained”, May 2023

• ESPN - “Former Mississippi governor helped Brett Favre obtain welfare funds for university volleyball stadium texts show”, September 2022

• CBS News - “Pharmaceutical company linked to Brett Favre made pitch for state welfare funds at quarterback's Mississippi home”, October 2022

• Associated Press - “A former pro wrestler is charged in Mississippi with welfare fraud”, April 2023

• Mississippi Free Press - “Accountant Anne McGrew Is First Person Sentenced in Mississippi Welfare Scandal, But 6 Remain Unsentenced”, May 2026