The judge rejects the defamation of the former governor of Mississippi against News Outlet

Jackson, Miss. – A judge dismissed a lawsuit by the former governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, who claimed that a local news agency recorded him in public comments on the Pulitzer Prize winner on the spelling error of $ 77 million in welfare funds in the amount of $ 77 million.

The one-sided judgment on Friday of the Madison County Courcuit Court judge Bradley Mills was today with lawyers for Mississippi, who had argued that the news agency had constantly protected.

“In the past 22 months, we have vigorously defended our reporting and our characterizations of Bryant’s role in the Mississippi Welfare Scandal with the Pulitzer Prize,” said Mississippi in a statement on his website today. “Today we are grateful that the court dismissed the case after careful advice.”

Bryant reached in 2023, weeks after Mississippi, and one of his reporters, Anna Wolfe, won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on how the welfare money for poor Mississippians – some of the impoverished people in the USA – were derived into the rich and powerful.

Bryant’s lawsuit did not call for the accuracy of Wolfe ‘series “The Backchannel” that illuminated the social scandal light. Instead, Bryant’s lawyers argued that the news agency, his CEO and other employees made defamed comments about Bryant when he discussed the series in public environments, including a radio interview and a speech at a journalism conference.

Mississippi’s lawyers today argued that the comments that Bryant claimed had violated his reputation was “complete or essentially true” and Bryant did not make any of the statements with “actual malice” – which means that they were knowingly or ruthlessly wrong. For this reason, according to the lawyers, Bryant did not fulfill the legal standard for politicians and other public personalities in order to demonstrate the defamation of the US Supreme Court in 1964.

Bryant’s lawyer, William Quin II, said on Monday that he would appeal against the Supreme Court of Mississippi against the dismissal of the judge.

“This matter is far from over,” said Quin in an e -mail declaration. “Governor Bryant is still confident in the legal basis of this case and the justice of this matter.”

The non -profit committee to protect journalists praised the judge’s decision to raise the lawsuit.

“The suing of news organizations, just because they do not like their reporting, is a rough intimidation tactics that can empty resources and discourage critical reporting,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the US program coordinator of the committee, said in an explanation that was published on X.

The public prosecutor said that the state agency of the state had given non -profit organizations money that spent projects such as a volleyball volleyball facility of 5 million US dollars at the University of Southern Mississippi -a project for which the retired NFL Quarterback Brett Favre agreed to collect money.

The Mississippi Auditor, Shad White, announced in February 2020 that criminal complaints were raised against six people, including John Davis, a former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, who had been selected by Bryant. The announcement was given weeks after Bryant, a Republican, ended his second and last term as governor. Davis and others have guilty.

No criminal charges were raised against Bryant, and he said that in 2019 he informed the auditor about possible faults of money from temporary support for needy families.

Favre was also not charged with a crime. The Pro Football Hall of Fam is one of the more than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit that the state submitted in 2022. In the lawsuit, the repayment of the money is required, which was misspelled by TANF.

White, the Republican Auditor, said in 2020 that Favre had received the social benefit of a non -profit organization with the approval of the Foreign Ministry for Human Services, not properly $ 1.1 million in speech fees. White said Favre did not show up to the speeches. Although Favre repaid the 1.1 million US dollar, White said last year that he still owes almost 730,000 US dollars to interest.