Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s lawsuit against Mississippi Today will reach the Mississippi Supreme Court on Wednesday, as justices consider his allegations that the publication defamed him by suggesting he was involved in a massive welfare scandal.
“This case involves a two-term former Governor, Phil Bryant, suing the state’s largest newsroom, Mississippi Today, and several of its professionals for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, after they had engaged in a years-long campaign to label him a corrupt criminal,” Bryant’s brief alleges.
Since 2020, multiple high-profile individuals have faced either civil action or state and federal charges over a welfare scandal that saw John Davis, who led the Mississippi Department of Human Services under Bryant, misuse millions in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dollars—including directing it toward wealthy sports celebrities and their causes. Ted DiBiase Jr., a retired WWE wrestler who prosecutors say benefited from millions in TANF funds that Davis directed his way, is currently on trial.
Prosecutors have not accused retired NFL star Brett Favre of a crime, but he is among those the State has sued in civil court as part of an effort to recoup millions in funds. Bryant is neither a civil nor criminal defendant, however. In mid-2019, a MDHS employee tipped Bryant off about a suspicious contract Davis had awarded to a company owned by Brett DiBiase—another criminal defendant, retired wrestler and the brother of Ted DiBiase Jr. Bryant turned the tip over to State Auditor Shad White, kicking off the welfare investigation.
Text messages revealed in civil court reveal that Bryant started expressing concerns about projects Davis, Favre and nonprofit operator Nancy New were working on in mid-2019, following the MDHS tip. In one text conversation about a volleyball project at Favre’s alma mater that New and Davis had directed welfare funds toward, Favre pressed Bryant for help, ensuring the project would be fully funded.
“We are going to get there. … But we have to follow the law. I am to (sic) old for federal prison,” Bryant wrote. Then in texts with his staff attorney on Sept. 6, 2019, Bryant wrote that “Nancy is worrying” because “she know(s) what they were doing was wrong.”
Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe has investigated and reported on the welfare scandal since state and Hinds County officials broke the arrests of Davis, New, Brett DiBiase and others in 2020. As the publication announced that her work had won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for her “Backchannel” series on the scandal in 2023, it described her work as revealing how Bryant “used his office to steer the spending of millions of federal welfare dollars—money intended to help the state’s poorest residents—to benefit his family and friends.”
Bryant has denied those allegations and long maintained that he did not know Davis was misusing TANF funds.
“Mississippi Today, an outlet known for supporting liberal causes and candidates, repeatedly accused a Republican governor of stealing tens of millions of dollars from the state, despite civil and criminal authorities not making similar accusations after years of investigation and having unrestricted access to criminals who were motivated to implicate him in their crimes,” Bryant’s brief alleges.
“… Bryant alleges that the defendants used various illicit methods to damage his reputation, including exaggerating evidence to make it seem more convincing or condemnatory than it is; promoting the most sensational and damaging interpretation of evidence as if it were the gospel truth without considering innocent alternative explanations; making sensational and implausible claims; relying on unreliable sources; following a predetermined storyline; ignoring information from firsthand and investigative sources that did not support their narrative; and refusing to retract, correct, or apologize for their false and defamatory statements,” the brief continues.
Lawyers for Mississippi Today allege in reply that the former governor is attempting to silence reporting into government corruption that took place under his administration.
“The Governor did not challenge the award-winning Backchannel series itself. Instead, he alleged defamation and false light invasion of privacy based on a mishmash of follow-on coverage and press reports about Mississippi Today’s award,” Mississippi Today’s lawyers said in their brief. “His goal was clear. Unable to bring claims based on the Backchannel series itself, Governor Bryant sought to use this case to retaliate against these award-winning journalists and to silence the very best of American shoe-leather journalism.”
Mississippi Today’s lawyers describe Bryant’s lawsuit as a threat to fundamental press freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
The former Mississippi governor first filed the lawsuit against MT’s parent company, Deep South Today, in 2023. Bryant alleged that the online news publication and its CEO, Mary Margaret White, defamed him by claiming he “embezzled,” “squandered,” and “steered” $77 million in welfare funds “to benefit his family and friends, including NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.”
Following Bryant’s initial threat to sue, White apologized for saying Bryant embezzled welfare funds, saying she misspoke. The publication has not retracted any of its reporting.
Bryant’s lawsuit expanded in 2024 year to include reporting by Wolfe and then-Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau, who is now the executive director of the parent organization Deep South Today.
A lower court previously dismissed Bryant’s lawsuit in 2025, but the Mississippi Supreme Court revived it after Bryant appealed.
The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear the case in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, at 1 p.m. The court will stream the hearing live at this link.