Brett Favre denies wrongdoing in welfare case, blames media

Brett Favre says he has done nothing wrong and has been «smeared» in the media in response to his involvement in a sprawling welfare investigation in Mississippi, according to a statement given to Fox News Digital.

«I have been unjustly smeared in the media,» Favre said in the statement, which Fox News Digital published Tuesday. «I have done nothing wrong, and it is past time to set the record straight.

»No one ever told me, and I did not know, that funds designated for welfare recipients were going to the University or me. I tried to help my alma mater USM [University of Southern Mississippi], a public Mississippi state university, raise funds for a wellness center. My goal was and always will be to improve the athletic facilities at my university."

According to a Mississippi state audit, $77 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds were diverted from the poorest people in America's poorest state toward rich and powerful Mississippians. Six people have been arrested in the case, five of whom have pleaded guilty to state charges. Favre has not been criminally charged but is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the state.

His alma mater, Southern Miss, received $5 million in TANF money, transferred from the Department of Human Services to a nonprofit and, eventually, to USM's Athletic Foundation, the audit said. A volleyball facility, Wellness Center, was later built on campus. Text messages show Favre pushed for funding for a volleyball facility when his daughter was on the team.

«State agencies provided the funds to Nancy New's charity, the Mississippi Community Education Center, which then gave the funds to the University, all with the full knowledge and approval of other State agencies,»