A Mississippi judge has dismissed claims of defamation filed by Phil Bryant following accusations of $77,000,000 welfare fraud by Mississippi Today, who also named Brett Favre in the claims.

The story broke in 2020 and attracted national attention due to involving the Green Bay Packers legend, who is in the NFL Hall of Fame and won the 1996/97 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.

It then rose to even greater prominence in September 2022 when Mississippi Today published text messages between Favre and Bryant, the latter being the then-governor of the state.

The texts showed plans to divert five million dollars from federal welfare causes to open a new volleyball site at the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played volleyball at the time.

One of the texts even had Favre state, “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?”

Mississippi Today won a Pulitzer Prize for its expose but Bryant was not keen to let the matter go without a fight and launched a defamation lawsuit against the outlet, which was denied in court as per ESPN’s Mark Fainaru-Wada.

Madison County Circuit Court Judge Bradley Mills dismissed the action, which Mississippi Today had slammed as a “baseless defamation lawsuit” and ruled in favor of the press as their celebrations began.

The reporting speaks for itself. The truth speaks for itself,” Mississippi Today said, managing to avoid the risk of being in contempt of court, that could have landed journalists Adam Ganucheau and Anna Wolfe in prison.

Bryant doesn’t let it go

Being ruled against is a big setback to Bryant‘s bid to clear his own name and to silence the matter after being locked into a nearly-two-year-long legal battle against the media outlet.

Bryant, who served as the 64th governor of the state from 2012-2020, plans to take the matter to the Mississippi Supreme Court on appeal according to his own attorney, Billy Quinn.