She exposed how the poorest state in the country spent federal welfare money. Now she could go to prison.

When Anna Wolfe won a Pulitzer Prize for her tenacious reporting on the Mississippi welfare fraud scandal, she had no idea she would soon face the possibility of going to prison.

But just a year after she won a top journalism award for exposing how $77 million in federal welfare money went to athletes, cronies and pet projects, she and her editor, Adam Ganucheau, are wondering what to pack for an extended stay behind bars. Defamation lawsuits by the state’s former governor — a central subject of their reporting — have been ordered by a court to turn over internal files, including the names of confidential sources, a warrant they say threatens the journalism they will oppose.

“If any of us go to prison, we’ll be the first person to go to prison in connection with the Mississippi welfare scandal,” Wolfe told NBC News, referring to the eight indictments that have stemmed from the mess, none of which have yet resulted in a conviction. “How can I promise sources that I will keep their confidentiality if possible?”

The case has drawn attention beyond Mississippi as an example of how public figures can make life difficult for news organizations long before they have the evidence of “actual malice” needed to prove defamation cases. Mississippi Today, an independent nonprofit that employs Wolfe and Ganucheau, is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the order. Bryant appointed four of the nine justices. “The breach of confidentiality of sources violates one of the most sacred trusts — and breaks one of the most important tools — of investigative journalism,” Ganucheau wrote in a recent New York Times editorial. “No serious news organization would agree to such a request.”

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

The plaintiff in the defamation case is Phil Bryantwho was governor when the scandal broke, first with a state auditor’s report and then with a flurry of reporting in Mississippi Today. Bryant — who has not been charged with a crime and insists he did nothing illegal — says the online news organization wrongly accused him of criminal conduct.

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

“I didn’t sue them because they exposed $77 million in misappropriations. He praises them for that,” he said. “The lawsuit is for defamation.”

The scandal came to light when Wolfe began asking questions about how the poor state had rejected more than 90% of people who applied for benefits. She wanted to know where the federal money was going. Her questions led to a referral to the state auditor, who released 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 qualify for benefits each year, white state officials and their associates diverted vast sums of federal welfare money intended for poor and mostly black women and children, according to public records.

The money instead went to well-connected people and their pet causes, public records show, most of which had little to do with helping poor people. That included a $5 million-plus volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, a project backed by former NFL star Brett Favre, whose daughter happened to play on the volleyball team there.

Favre, who has not been charged, also received $1.1 million for alleged promotional activities. And a pharmaceutical company he owned a stake 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!!” Favre texted Bryant on Dec. 26, 2018. Bryant responded, “I’ll open the hole.”

Bryant’s role in the spending was a key topic of reporting in a Pulitzer-winning series of articles called “The Backchannel.” It’s now the subject of a defamation lawsuit. “The investigation, published in a multipart series in 2022, revealed for the first time how former Gov. Phil Bryant used his position to direct the spending of millions of dollars in federal welfare money — 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 disputes that and similar statements, saying he played no role in directing the money. The man who did, Quin said, is John Davis, the state’s social services 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 wrongdoing by others. When I received evidence suggesting that people appeared to be misappropriating funds, I immediately reported it to the agency tasked with investigating these matters.” Bryant did not sue after the April 2022 articles were published, and in fact, the statute of limitations for defamation claims in Mississippi expires after one year. But in February 2023, Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White mischaracterized the reports at a journalism conference in Miami.

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

Embezzlement is a crime, and Bryant has never been charged, much less convicted. There is no indication that he is the target of the ongoing federal investigation into the welfare fraud scandal. In May 2023 — days after the Pulitzer was announced — Quin sent Mississippi Today a notice of intent to sue, citing the “embezzlement” remark. A week later, White issued a public apology, saying, “I expressed myself poorly at a recent press conference regarding allegations against former Gov. Phil Bryant in a $77 million welfare fraud scandal. He has not been charged with any crime. My remark was inappropriate and I sincerely apologize.”

Quin, however, said her apology should have been broader and included a statement that Mississippi Today had no evidence that Bryant had misappropriated funds.

“The result is, ‘you’ve misappropriated $77 million and the criminal authorities are doing nothing about it,'” he said. “So we’re here to give this situation one of their favorite words, accountability. Well, now the rabbit has a gun; we’ll see who’s going to be responsible.”

Quin has since incorporated newer articles and says the references to the Backchannel series amount to a “repost,” which makes the entire body of work fair game. “He was very badly affected by this series of defamatory comments,” Quin said. “He has a right to protect himself. He has a right to pursue his rights just like anyone else.”

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

“This is not a fishing expedition,” Quin said. “The judge is reviewing the record on which you claim to base your defamatory statements to determine whether they support what you said.”

However, journalists are extremely reluctant to give the names of confidential sources to anyone, even judges.

“It would have a chilling effect on sources coming forward,” Ganucheau said. “It would make journalists in Mississippi wonder how they collect what they collect, and whether they should be collecting it at all.”

Meanwhile, fighting what she sees as an unfounded lawsuit is taking its toll on one of the country’s most talented reporters.

“It makes it harder for me to do my job,” Wolfe said. “I mean, I’m working on a story right now that I think is incredibly important, and now I feel like I’m going to get sued. I feel like now anything I try to report is going to be met with the same level of gaslighting, intimidation and control. So it definitely affects my day-to-day life.”

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

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com