Dinesh Chawla said in an email to The Times earlier this month that the Trump Organization had played no role in the rebate application and that the Trumps and the Chawlas had agreed that any rebate would not figure into fees paid to the Trumps.

Mr. Chawla said he and his brother had sought the rebate to “improve our cash flow.”

A spokesman for the Mississippi development agency said the Trump name was not mentioned anywhere in the Chawlas’ application.

The development agency’s tourism rebate program is part of an effort to draw tourists to Mississippi and help the local economy. According to the development agency, the program allows a developer to recoup some of the sales taxes collected on a property to “reimburse the applicant for eligible costs incurred during the project’s construction.” The agency said earlier this month that 23 other tourism rebate applications had been approved under the program, including 10 for hotels.

The partnership between the Chawlas and the Trumps materialized after Mr. Bryant, a Republican, introduced members of the two families during the 2016 presidential campaign. The governor and the Chawlas have known each other for years.

Clay Chandler, a spokesman for Mr. Bryant, said earlier this month that the Chawlas had followed the same procedure as other applicants for the tax rebate. “State law guides the application process, and state law alone will determine if any application is approved,” he said.

In his earlier email to The Times, Dinesh Chawla said that “no contact with Governor Bryant or his executive staff has been made regarding the project, other than our general discussion about what the project contains.”

Still, the Chawlas contacted state officials for more than two years, seeking to get the project on their radar, according to the emails obtained through a public records request.