Lawsuit alleging 'sordid' sexual abuse by former WWE chairman will go to arbitration
Vince McMahon attends a press conference Feb. 16, 2012, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael N. Todaro/Getty Images)
A lawsuit alleging former World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon engaged in a “sordid” campaign of sexual abuse is heading to arbitration.
In the 2024 federal suit, former WWE employee Janel Grant claimed that McMahon pressured her into having sex with him several times as a condition of her employment, according to a story from Courthouse News Service. She also alleged that McMahon shared sexually explicit photographs and videos of her with other WWE employees and trafficked her to the company’s former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis, wrestler Brock Lesnar and others.
But on Monday, the parties agreed to dismiss Grant’s suit and handle the dispute outside the courtroom, Courthouse News Service reports.
McMahon, who didn’t respond to the publication’s request for comment, stepped down from his position with the WWE in 2022 but returned as a board member a year later to help with the WWE’s merger with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
A criminal probe launched by the Department of Justice into McMahon was dropped after President Donald Trump began his second term, Courthouse News Service also reports. McMahon’s wife, Linda McMahon, was the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, and she is currently the secretary of the Department of Education.
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