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Former WWE CEO and chairman Vince McMahon is now under federal investigation over allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking levied by former WWE employee Janel Grant.
Grant, who worked in the talent relations and legal department, filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against McMahon on January 25 in which she makes a series of very alarming accusations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, federal prosecutors in New York have been speaking to multiple women who have accused Vince McMahon of sexual misconduct as part of the investigation.
Grant’s lawsuit said McMahon agreed in 2022 to pay her $3 million to keep silent about their relationship, which she said began after they met in 2019 at his luxury apartment building, where Grant also lived. Grant, who worked in the talent-relations and legal departments at WWE from 2019 to 2022, said in her lawsuit that McMahon stopped paying her after an initial $1 million wire transfer.
The other women named in the grand jury subpoena include a WWE contractor whom McMahon allegedly sent unsolicited nude photos and sexually harassed; a former WWE wrestler who said McMahon coerced her into giving him oral sex; former WWE referee Rita Chatterton, who publicly accused McMahon of raping her; a spa manager who said McMahon assaulted her at a Southern California resort; and a former WWE employee who alleged the head of talent relations at the company at the time, John Laurinaitis, demoted her after she broke off an affair with him.
Grant claimed in her lawsuit that Vince McMahon trafficked her to former WWE Head of Talent Relations (and stepfather to the Bella Twins) John Laurinaitis.
She claims McMahon had her visit Laurinaitis in hotel rooms to have sex with him before the start of workdays. She also alleges that they took turns restraining and assaulting her inside an office at WWE headquarters.
Edward Brennan, a lawyer for Laurinaitis, tried to paint his client as also being a victim of Vince McMahon.
“It’s a good complaint. It just doesn’t list all the victims, including Johnny,” he wrote in an email to the Wall Street Journal.
The current investigation is a continuation of events that include federal agents executing a search warrant for McMahon’s phone over the summer.
Feds also delivered a subpoena to McMahon for any documents in his possession that relate to allegations of “rape, sex trafficking, sexual assault, commercial sex transaction, harassment or discrimination” against current or former WWE employees.
In 2022, it was revealed that Vince McMahon made hush money payouts in the millions to multiple women who accused him of sexual misconduct while he was CEO of WWE.
He “voluntarily” stepped down as CEO amid the reports. A month later he announced his “retirement.”
Six months later he was back.
Three months later he sold WWE to UFC parent company Endeavor for $9.3 billion.
Seven months after that, a lawsuit filed by a group of former WWE shareholders claims the WWE-UFC merger was a “sham sales process” designed to protect Vince McMahon.
Following the lawsuit filed by Janet Grant, McMahon resigned for the second time in two years, this time giving up both his job as executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings (the new umbrella company that was formed to cover UFC and WWE) and his seat on the TKO board of directors.
He remains a major shareholder in the company, however.