JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi’s Republican attorney general sued the Republican state auditor Thursday, trying to block the auditor’s effort to recover misspent welfare money from retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre — money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s lawsuit says that filing litigation to recover improperly spent money is the responsibility of the attorney general’s office, not the auditor’s.
Weeks ago, Fitch’s office said it would no longer represent White in a defamation lawsuit that Favre filed last year against the auditor. That change in representation came after an announcement that White is writing a book, to be published later this year, about his investigation into improper spending of welfare funds.
“The Attorney General’s withdrawal of discretionary representation of Auditor White in the Defamation Suit does not permit Auditor White to encroach upon the authority otherwise vested in the attorney general,” Gerald Kucia, a special assistant attorney general, wrote on …