Mississippi Today
AG Lynn Fitch drops Auditor Shad White in defamation suits after reading his welfare scandal book
Attorney General Lynn Fitch no longer represents State Auditor Shad White in two defamation cases after determining his upcoming book about the welfare scandal would cast her office in a negative light.
Fitch learned about White’s tell-all, โMississippi Swindle: Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal that Shocked America,โ while representing him in two defamation lawsuits brought by Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and James Thomas, a University of Mississippi sociology professor.
The book, which is slated to be released in August 2024, became an issue in Favre’s defamation suit against White last month. A Dec. 29 filing in Hinds County Circuit Court from Favre’s counsel argued that โMississippi Swindleโ is proof White intended to defame Favre when he criticized the quarterback in media appearances.
โWhite’s publication of this book โ in which it is apparent he will continue his outrageous defamation campaign against Favre โ provides even further confirmation that, when, as alleged in the complaint, White appeared on national and international media outlets to defame Favre, he was in no way acting within the scope of his official duties but instead to advance his personal political ambitions and, in the case of the book, make money,โ the filing reads.
Fitch’s office responded on Jan. 2 and asked the court to grant White’s motion to dismiss.
But three days later, Fitch’s office sent White a letter notifying him of a conflict of interest, which Mississippi Today obtained from the auditor’s office. After reading an advanced copy of โMississippi Swindleโ and finding it contained multiple statements that called the integrity of the Attorney General into question, Fitch’s office decided it could no longer represent him.
โAs a fellow statewide elected official, the Attorney General must reserve the right to refute these statements publicly in due course,โ the Jan. 5 letter reads. โThis dynamic obviously creates a divergence of interests between you and the Attorney General that impedes her ability to further discharge her duties as your counsel in the pending personal defamation actions.โ
The letter further states Fitch’s office had previously advised White that any legal matters stemming from the publication of โMississippi Swindleโ would fall outside the scope of his office, so he would need to retain separate counsel.
By Friday evening, White had already appointed in-office counsel to represent him in both defamation suits because, he wrote on social media, his statements were made as part of his office’s investigations into the welfare scandal and Thomas’ participation in a two-day event called a โScholar Strike.”
Thomas’ case has seen no movement since a Hinds County Circuit Court judge denied White’s motion to dismiss in 2022. White had argued that as a state executive officer, he is entitled to a legal doctrine known as โabsolute immunityโ โ the complete protection from liability for actions committed in the course of his official duties.
Debbee Hancock, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, wrote in a statement that Fitch’s representation in White’s defamation cases was โdiscretionaryโ and that Fitch would continue to work with the auditor’s office on other cases, including those arising from the welfare scandal.
โWe will continue to pursue our TANF civil suit with our partners at the Department of Human Services as well as any criminal wrongdoing that may come from our investigation, to the extent we can do so without stepping on the criminal case the Auditor chose to take to the District Attorney and U.S. Attorney for prosecution,โ Hancock wrote.
Hancock added that Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff, said she would not specify the statements in the book that question the attorney general’s integrity as Williams is “bound by the rules of professional conduct.”
According to a blurb for โMississippi Swindleโ on the publisher’s website, the book โreveals a lack of cooperation and outright opposition to the investigation by prosecutors, legislators and other powerful figures that was almost as maddening as the theft itself.โ
Both Fitch and White have previously discussed with advisers the possibility of running for Mississippi governor. The next statewide election cycle is 2027.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1926
Nov. 5, 1926
Victoria Gray Adams, one of the founding members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, was born near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
โ(There are) those who are in the Movement and those who have the Movement in them,โ she said. โThe Movement is in me, and I know it always will be.โ
In 1961, this door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman convinced her preacher to open their church to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which began pushing for voter registration. A year later, she became a field secretary for SNCC and led a boycott of businesses in Hattiesburg, later helping found the umbrella group, the Council of Federated Organization, for all the civil rights groups working in Mississippi.
In 1964, she and other civil rights leaders fought the Jim Crow laws and practices that kept Black Mississippians from voting, marching to the courthouse in the chilly rain to protest. By the end of the day, nearly 150 had made their way to register to vote.
Adams became the first known woman in Mississippi to run for the U.S. Senate, unsuccessfully challenging longtime Sen. John Stennis. She also helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It was time, she said, to pay attention to Black Mississippians, โwho had not even had the leavings from the American political table.โ
In August 1964, she joined party members in challenging Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
โWe really were the true Democratic Party,โ she recalled in a 2004 interview. โWe accomplished the removal of the wall, the curtain of fear in Mississippi for African-Americans demanding their rights.โ
Four years later, the party that once barred her now welcomed her.
She continued her activism and later talked of that success: โWe eliminated the isolation of the African-Americans from the political process. I believe that Mississippi now has the highest number of African-American elected officials in the nation. We laid the groundwork for that.โ
In 2006, she died of cancer.
โWhen I met โฆ that community of youthful civil rights activists, I realized that this was exactly what I’d been looking for all of my conscious existence,โ she said. โIt was like coming home.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Vote today: Mississippi voters head to the polls. Hereโs what you need to know
Polls in Mississippi will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today as voters make their picks for presidential, congressional, state judicial and some local races.
READ MORE: View Mississippi sample ballot
Voters are reminded to bring a photo identification. This can include a valid Mississippi driver’s license, an identification or employee identification card issued by any government entity of the U.S. or state of Mississippi, a U.S. passport, a military photo ID card, a current student ID card issued by an accredited college or university or a Mississippi voter ID card. For more information on voter ID rules, check here.
READ MORE: Vote Tuesday: Candidates battle for seats on state’s highest courts
Those who do not have a valid ID can vote affidavit, but must return and present a photo ID within five days for their ballot to count. Voters waiting in line as polls close at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote. If you vote absentee or affidavit, you can track the status of your ballot here.
POLLING PLACE LOCATOR: Use the secretary of state’s online locator to find where you vote
Stay tuned to Mississippi Today for live results, starting after polls close.
LISTEN: Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election
The Mississippi secretary of state’s office offers an online resource, My Election Day, where voters can locate or confirm their polling place, view sample ballots and view current office holders. Those with doubts or questions about their precinct locations are urged to contact their local election officials. Contact info for local election officials is also provided on the My Election Day site.
READ MORE: Mississippi Election 2024: What will be on Tuesday’s ballot?
The secretary of state’s office, U.S. attorney’s office and the state Democratic and Republican parties will have observers across the state monitoring elections and responding to complaints.
The secretary of state’s elections division can be contacted at 1-800-829-6786 or ElectionsAnswers@sos.ms.gov.
The U.S. attorney’s office investigates election fraud, intimidation or voting rights issues and can be contacted at 601-973-2826 or 601-973-2855, or complaints can be filed directly with the Department of Justice Civil Rights division at civilrights.justice.gov. Local law enforcement holds primary jurisdiction and serves as a first responder for alleged crimes or emergencies at voting precincts.
The secretary of state’s office also provides some Election Day law reminders:
- It is unlawful to campaign for any candidate within 150 feet from any entrance to a polling place, unless on private property.
- The polling places should be clear of people for 30 feet from every entrance except for election officials, voters waiting to vote or authorized poll watchers.
- Voters are prohibited from taking photos of their marked ballots.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Senate panel weighs how much โ or whether โ to cut state taxes
A group of state senators on Monday grappled with how much to slash state taxes or if they should cut them at all, portending a major policy debate at the Capitol for next year’s legislative session.
The Senate Fiscal Policy Study Group solicited testimony from the state government‘s leading experts on budget, economic and tax policies to prepare for an almost certain intense debate in January over how much they should trim state taxes while balancing the need to fund government services.ย
Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood whose committee has jurisdiction over tax policy, told Mississippi Today that he wanted senators to have basic facts in front of them before they help decide next year if Mississippi should cut taxes.
โWe’re getting a tax cut the next two years whether we do anything or not,โ Harkins said. โI just want to make sure we have all the facts in front of people to understand we have a clear picture of how much revenue we’re bringing in.โ
Mississippi is already phasing in a major tax cut. After a raucous debate in 2022, lawmakers agreed to phase in an income tax cut. In two years it will leave Mississippi with a flat 4% tax on income over $10,000, one of the lowest rates in the nation.
However, the top two legislative leaders, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the Senate and House Speaker Jason White, have both recently said they want legislators to consider new tax cut policies.
Hosemann, the Republican leader of the Senate, has publicly said he would like to see the state’s grocery tax, the highest of its kind in the nation, reduced, though he hasn’t specified how much of a reduction or how long it would take for the cut to be implemented.
White, a Republican from West, said last week that he would like to see the state’s 4% income tax phased out and have the state’s 7% grocery tax cut in half over time.
โWe are hoping to construct a tax system that, yes, prioritizes certain needs in our state, but it also protects and rewards taxpayers,โ White said last week.
But it’s difficult to collect accurate data on the state’s grocery tax, and state lawmakers must grapple with a laundry list of spending needs and obligations based on testimony from state agency leaders on Monday.
Mississippi currently has a 7% sales tax, which is applied to groceries. The state collects the tax but remits 18.5% back to cities. For many municipalities, the sales tax is a significant source of revenue.
If state lawmakers want to reduce the grocery tax without impacting cities, they could pass a new law to change the diversion amounts or appropriate enough money to make the municipalities whole.
State Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the agency in charge of collecting state taxes, does not have a mechanism in place for accurately capturing how much money cities collect in grocery taxes. This is because the tax on groceries is the same as non-grocery items.
However, Graham estimates that the state collects roughly $540 million in taxes from grocery items.
The other problem lawmakers would have in implementing significant tax cuts is a growing list of spending needs in Mississippi, a state with abject poverty, water and sewer and other infrastructure woes and some of the worst health metrics in the nation.
Representatives from the Legislative Budget Office, the group that advises lawmakers on tax and spending policy, told senators that lawmakers will also be faced with rising costs in the public employee retirement system, the Medicaid budget, public education, state employee health insurance, and state infrastructure projects.
State agencies, including the employee retirement system, also requested $751 million more for the coming budget year.
โThat’s the billion dollar question, I guess,โ Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said. โHow we’re able to fund basic government services?โ
Harkins and Hopson said the committee would likely meet again before the Legislature convenes for its 2025 session on January 7.
A House committee on tax cuts has also been holding hearings, and White in September held a summit on tax policy.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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