She won a Pulitzer for exposing how the poorest state in the country spent federal welfare money. Now she could go to jail.

When Anna Wolfe won the Pulitzer Prize For her dogged reporting on the Mississippi welfare fraud scandal, she had no idea that she would soon face the possibility of going to jail.

But just over a year after she won journalism’s top prize for exposing how $77 million in federal welfare funds went to athletes, friends and pet projects, she and her editor, Adam Ganucheau, are considering what what to pack for a prolonged stay behind bars. Sued for defamation by the state’s former governor — a major theme of their reporting — they were hit with a court order forcing them to hand over internal files, including the names of confidential sources. They say the order is a threat to journalism that they will resist.

“If one of us goes to prison, we will be the first person to go to prison in the Mississippi welfare scandal,” Wolfe told NBC News, referring to the eight indictments that resulted from the imbroglio, none of which have yet resulted. in a sentence. “How can I make promises to sources that I will keep them confidential, if that is possible?”

For more on this story, tune in to NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT or check your local listings.

The case has drawn attention beyond Mississippi as an example of how public figures can make life difficult for news organizations long before they present evidence of the “true malice” needed to prove defamation cases. Mississippi Today, the independent nonprofit that employs Wolfe and Ganucheau, is asking the state Supreme Court to vacate the order. Bryant appointed four of the nine judges.

“Breaking the confidentiality of sources violates one of the most sacred trusts – and breaks one of the most vital tools – of investigative journalism,” Ganucheau wrote in a recent article. New York Times op-ed. “No serious news organization would agree to this demand.”

(Andy Lack, former president of NBC News, is executive chairman of the board of directors of Mississippi Today.)

The plaintiff in the defamation case is Phil Bryant, who was governor when the scandal erupted, first with a report from the state auditor, then with a blizzard of Mississippi Today coverage. Bryant — who has not been charged with a crime and says he did nothing illegal — claims the online news organization wrongly accused him of criminal conduct.

He declined to be interviewed, but his lawyer, Billy Quin, said the lawsuit is not intended to punish good reporting.

“I didn’t sue them because they exposed $77 million in improper spending. He applauds them for doing this,” he said. “The lawsuit is for defamation.”

The scandal came to light after Wolfe began asking questions about how a poor state rejected more than 90% of people who applied for welfare. She wanted to know where the federal money was going. Her questions led to a referral to the state auditor, who published a scathing report in 2020 questioning more than $90 million in spending.

The details were stunning enough to make national news, though they didn’t surprise many Mississippians. In the poorest state in America, where only a few thousand families a year qualify for welfare, white public officials and their associates diverted enormous sums of federal welfare money intended for poor, mostly black women and children, from according to public records.

The money instead went to well-connected people and their favorite causes, public records show, most of which had little to do with helping poor people. They included a volleyball facility costing more than $5 million at the University of Southern Mississippi, a project championed by former NFL football star Brett Favre, whose daughter was on the volleyball team there.

Favre, who was not charged, also received $1.1 million for alleged promotional efforts. And a pharmaceutical company he owned shares in, Prevacus, received $2.1 million, according to public records. Favre lobbied the governor to help secure the money, according to text messages obtained by Mississippi Today.

“It’s third and long and we need you to make it happen!!” Favre texted Bryant on Dec. 26, 2018. Bryant responded, “I’m going to dig a hole.”

The question of Bryant’s role in the spending was a key reporting topic in the Pulitzer-winning series of articles dubbed “The back channel.” It is now at issue in the defamation lawsuit.

“The investigation, published in a multi-part series in 2022, revealed for the first time how former governor Phil Bryant used his office to direct the spending of millions of federal welfare dollars – money intended to help the state’s poorest residents – to benefit his family and friends, including NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre,” Mississippi Today reported when the award was announced.

Bryant disagrees with that and similar pronouncements, saying he played no role in directing the money. The man who did it, Quin said, is John Davis, the state welfare director, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud and theft charges in September 2022 but has not yet been sentenced.

“The fact is I did nothing wrong,” Bryant said in a statement in May 2023. “I was not aware of the mistakes of others. When I received evidence that suggested people appeared to be misappropriating funds, I immediately reported this to the agency whose role it is to investigate these matters.”

Bryant did not sue after the articles were published in April 2022, and in fact, the statute of limitations for defamation claims in Mississippi runs out after one year. But in February 2023, Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White mischaracterized the report at a journalism conference in Miami.

“We are the newsroom that broke the story that $77 million in welfare funds, intended for the poorest people in the poorest state in the country, were embezzled by a former governor and his bureaucratic cronies and used for pet projects , like a state-of-the-art volleyball stadium state at Brett Favre’s alma mater,” she said in videotaped comments.

Embezzlement is a crime and Bryant has never been charged, much less convicted. There has been no indication that he is the target of an ongoing federal investigation into the pension fraud scandal.

In May 2023 — just days after the Pulitzer announcement — Quin sent Mississippi Today a notice of his intention to sue, citing the “embezzlement” observation. A week later, White issued a public apology, saying: “I misspoke at a recent press conference about the allegations against former governor Phil Bryant in the $77 million welfare scandal. He was not charged with any crime. My remark was inappropriate and I sincerely apologize.”

But Quin said his apology should have gone further, saying Mississippi Today has no evidence that Bryant embezzled funds.

“The bottom line is ‘you embezzled $77 million and criminal authorities aren’t doing anything about it,’” he said. “So here we are to bring one of your favorite words, responsibility, to the situation. Well, the rabbit has the gun now; We’ll see who will be responsible.”

Quin has since incorporated more recent articles and argues that references to the Backchannel series amount to a “republication” that makes the entire work fair.

“This series of defamatory comments has had a very serious impact on him,” Quin said. “He has the right to protect himself. He has the right to assert his rights like anyone else.”

To win a defamation case, a public figure must demonstrate that someone published false information with “actual malice” or a reckless disregard for the truth. Quin said that’s why he needs the newspaper’s internal emails and the names of confidential sources, something journalists are reluctant to provide. The order calls for the materials to be turned over first to the judge, who will decide whether any of the evidence is relevant to a defamation claim.

“It’s not a fishing expedition,” Quin said. “A judge is examining the files you claim to rely on to support your defamatory statements to determine whether they support what you said.”

But journalists are extremely reluctant to reveal the names of confidential sources to anyone, even judges.

“This would have a chilling effect on future sources,” Ganucheau said. “This would have the effect of making Mississippi journalists question how they collect what they collect and whether they should in the first place.”

Meanwhile, fighting what she considers an unwarranted lawsuit is taking a toll on one of the state’s most talented reporters.

“It makes it harder to do my job,” Wolfe said. “I mean, I’m working on a story right now that I think is of great importance and that I now feel like I’m going to get sued too. It seems now that anything I try to report will be met with the same level of gaslighting, intimidation and scrutiny. So it definitely impacts my day to day life.”

And Wolfe said it’s unclear whether more money is reaching Mississippi’s poorest. According to state data, as of June, 1,423 families and 2,522 individuals were receiving federal welfare subsidies administered by Mississippi, a state where 548,000 people live in poverty.