News

Update on the sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE

Aaron Rift

It was reported by The Wall Street Journal in January of 2024 that Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit against WWE, Vince McMahon, and John Laurinaitis in a Connecticut federal court. McMahon was accused of sex trafficking in the complaint.

In an update on the lawsuit, McMahon has filed a motion to compel arbitration. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com noted that “McMahon’s defense is that the NDA he and Janel Grant agreed to contains an arbitration clause and therefore this dispute should go to private arbitration.” Thurston also wrote the following…

“In the motion, McMahon denies that Grant was grieving from the loss of her parents at the time McMahon and Grant met in 2019. McMahon says Grant’s father passed in 2017 and her mother passed away sometime earlier. McMahon references a lawsuit related to the foreclosure of Grants’ parents’ home filed with the New York State Supreme Court.”

Here is an excerpt from the document…

Defendant Vincent K. McMahon respectfully submits this memorandum of law in support of his motion to compel arbitration of Plaintiff Janel Grant’s Complaint filed on January 25, 2024, pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. §$ 3 and 4.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

By publicly filing her salacious, false and defamatory Complaint, Plaintiff has brazenly
and intentionally violated a binding contract to arbitrate. The Complaint’s outrageous claims of sexual abuse and coercion are pure fiction plainly intended to garner publicity and are flatly contradicted by Plaintiff’s own contemporaneous statements. Contrary to Plaintiffs false allegations, Plaintiff and Defendant (collectively, the “Parties”) engaged in a consensual relationship during which Defendant never coerced Plaintiff into doing anything and never mistreated her in any way. In fact, in a love letter Plaintiff wrote to Defendant shortly before the Parties ended their relationship, Plaintiff described Defendant as “[m]y best friend, my love and my everything,” praising him for being the “wonderful, tender, vulnerable, heart-on-your-sleeve soul you really are.” It is incredulous that Plaintiff, a then 42-year-old woman who claims on her resume to have a law degree from Pace University, would have written these words to Defendant months after all the events in the Complaint of alleged abuse, coercion, and “sex-trafficking” took place.

A response to McMahon’s court filing from Grant’s attorney Ann Callis was passed along…

ON THE RECORD FROM ANN CALLIS, ATTORNEY FOR JANEL GRANT
“Vince McMahon has never known a storyline that he doesn’t twist to fit his own shameful narrative. Her father was in in-home hospice during his final days where Janel continued to care for him around the clock. Prior to his death, she had been caring for her blind, wheelchair-bound mother. Using the grief of someone who lost both of her parents is an all new level of disgusting.” — Ann Callis, Attorney for Janel Grant

RE: Brian
“She was not dating at the time. Her ex-boyfriend allowed her to stay in the apartment as she rebuilt her life and resume post-taking care of her parents. She had no job and no other financial support to lean back on.” — Ann Callis, Attorney for Janel Grant

Please also see our previous statement about the letters:

STATEMENT FROM ANN CALLIS, ATTORNEY FOR JANEL GRANT
“Frankly it’s pretty disgusting that Vince’s weeks-late attempt to defend his horrendous behavior – behavior he claims to this day never happened – is to try to showcase letters that Vince himself coerced her to write.

His psychological torture of her continues–as is typical of abusive predators who respond to women speaking out with increased threats. While Janel isn’t a stranger to his intimidation tactics, this is a new low even for him.” -Ann Callis, Attorney for Janel Grant