Former WWE Employee Agrees to Halt Vince McMahon Sexual Assault Case Pending a Federal Investigation
Janel Grant has agreed to pause legal case against Vince McMahon pending a "non-public" investigation.
Former WWE employee Janel Grant has agreed to halt the proceedings in her legal case against Vince McMahon, WWE, and former head of WWE Talent Relations John Laurinaitis in a filing from today. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District Of New York presented new material to the federal court following McMahon's grand jury subpoena and search warrant he was issued last summer.
"Ms. Grant has consented to a request by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to stay her case against Mr. McMahon, WWE and Mr. Laurinaitis, pursuant to a pending non-public investigation," said Ann Callis, Attorney for Janel Grant in a statement provided to Comicbook. "We will cooperate with all appropriate next steps."
Back in January, Grant filed a lawsuit against McMahon and Laurinaitis and WWE, accusing them of sexual abuse and trafficking. In one instance, Grant alleges that McMahon shared explicit photos of her with other WWE employees and people outside of the company. Per the lawsuit, Grant was pressured to resign from the WWE and forced to sign an NDA shortly before a "major financial deadline" for the company.
The suit claims Grant agreed to a $3 million settlement in exchange for signing an NDA back in 2022, but McMahon refused to make payments after the first installment. A spokesperson for McMahon at the time explained that the lawsuit was "replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself."
When initial allegations were levied against the former CEO and Chairman of WWE in 2022, he briefly retired from his position. Allegedly, McMahon paid millions of dollars to former WWE employees in order to keep alleged affairs and alleged sexual misconduct quiet. He was then the subject of an investigation by WWE's Board of Directors and once it was "substantially complete," Paul "Triple H" Levesque was appointed WWE's CCO while Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were momentarily named Co-CEOs.
McMahon returned to WWE last January despite an objection from the Board of Directors who believed that while government investigations into McMahon's conduct by the U.S. Attorney's Office and SEC were pending, it "would not be prudent from a shareholder value perspective." He instead became the Executive Chairman of the Board where he remained to help initiate a sale of WWE. The sale successfully went through in September of 2023, merging with the UFC to create the $21.4 billion sports giant known as TKO. McMahon has since resigned from TKO/WWE entirely following the allegations brought forth by Ms. Grant.
In February, a statement from Laurinaitis' legal team claimed that he was a "victim" of McMahon's "power [and] control." He retracted that statement in May when he filed to fight the allegations together with McMahon.
