The latest episode is somewhat reminiscent of White’s holding back three years ago information that reflected poorly on Bryant, for whom White previously worked and to whom White was indebted for initially putting him into the state auditor’s job. The texts are mostly political fodder for Tate Reeves’ Democratic opponent, Brandon Presley, who has been trying very hard - at somewhat of a stretch - to tie the welfare scandal around the neck of Reeves, who served as lieutenant governor when the malfeasance in the Mississippi Department of Human Services was going on. We can’t see much in those texts that had any bearing on White’s investigation, all of which is now presumably in the hands of state and federal prosecutors to decide if there is a case to be made against anyone other than the half-dozen or so individuals who have been prosecuted so far. More concerning than giving Favre a little cover was the auditor’s conscious decision to try to keep the intervention by the governor’s brother quiet. White complied, but he might have done so without Todd Reeves’ prompting. In those messages, Todd Reeves, acting as an intermediary between Favre and White, asked that the state auditor say something nice about Favre when the former football star sent in his first installment on the $1.1 million that White demanded be repaid from improper use of welfare funds. One day later, though, Tate Reeves’ campaign, in an effort possibly to preempt the story it knew was coming, voluntarily released the text messages that the state auditor wanted to keep under wraps. White’s argument was that the investigation was ongoing and release of the communications could compromise it. White had been fighting Mississippi Today in court as late as last week over the release of text messages sent to him by Reeves’ brother, Todd, regarding the welfare scandal and the negative publicity it had created for former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, one of the beneficiaries of the misspending. In 2020, it was Reeves’ predecessor, Phil Bryant.
This time it was Tate Reeves, the incumbent governor in a tough reelection race, whom White appears to have been protecting. Shad White seems to be walking a tightrope on the welfare scandal between aggressively going after the stolen and misspent millions and protecting Republican colleagues from political fallout or embarrassment over the scandal.įor the second time since Mississippi’s state auditor helped break the scandal in 2020, he has been guilty of being less than forthcoming about information that might reflect poorly on fellow Republican officeholders.
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