By: Alex Yang
J. Brad Pigott was a former US attorney who worked for the Mississippi Department of Human Services. He was fired on Friday while trying to recoup tens of millions of dollars’ worth of misused welfare funds.
The MdoHS is a service that delivers Mississippi’s welfare grants. An investigation in 2020 found that up to 94 million dollars’ worth of welfare funds were misused in one of the worst scandals in recent years. Pigott was fired for issuing a subpoena that could have provided more information on large names that could have participated in the scandal.
The money was found to be going to the pockets of important figures in Mississippi instead of poor families, the people included figures. For example, Mr. Favre, a Mississippi native who was paid 11 million and over 1 million for speaking events he did not attend. He eventually paid 1.1 million dollars back to the state, but the state auditor demanded 228,000 dollars in interest.
In a statement by Shelby Witcher, a spokeswoman for Governor Reeves, she stated that “This work to recover misspent funds will continue uninterrupted, with a full-service law firm that is capable of handling it professionally,”
Robert G. Anderson, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, said that Mr. Pigott was fired because he filed the subpoena before consulting the agency beforehand. This was later disproved, and Mr. Pigott later stated that his firing had nothing to do with the quality of his legal work.
The firing was first reported on by the Mississippi news outlet Mississippi Today, as an investigation connected to another part of the scandal. An event where five million dollars’ worth of welfare funds were spent on creating a volleyball facility at the University of South Mississippi.
Critics say the problem that has occurred in Mississippi should have been foreseen when the old welfare system, a system based on cash benefits was replaced in 1996 by a system of block grants issued to the state, giving the leaders of the states more freedom and leeway on where to spend the money given.
This is one of the most impactful scandals to happen indecent years in the US and there should be great lengths taken to make sure this type of abuse of power and money should not happen again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/us/mississippi-lawyer-fired-welfare.html