Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre continues to face a civil lawsuit arising from a Mississippi welfare scandal. He has not been accused of criminal misconduct.
He apparently is very confident he won’t be.
Via A.J.. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com, Favre’s lawyers have indicated he will not invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when testifying in the civil lawsuit. The comment was made in connection with an effort by Favre’s lawyers to oppose a an effort by three other defendants to stay the civil case pending the resolution of their criminal cases.
“Favre would be severely prejudiced by a stay,” his lawyer’s wrote. “A stay under these circumstances would unduly delay Favre’s opportunity to have his day in court and clear his name.”
The problem for Favre is that anything he says to clear his name in the civil case could be used against him in a potential criminal case. Or it could spark an investigation for the possibility that Favre failed to tell the truth while under oath in the civil case.
That said, if Favre were to invoke the Fifth Amendment in the civil case, he almost certainly would lose, because he would not be rebutting the evidence introduced against him.
Favre has at all times insisted that he has done nothing wrong in connection with alleged misappropriation of federal welfare funds.