Vince McMahon attends a press convention at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Michael N. Todaro | Getty Images
WWE boss Vince McMahon was accused Thursday of sexual assault, trafficking, and bodily and emotional abuse in a lawsuit by a girl who beforehand labored for the professional wrestling large.
The Connecticut federal court docket swimsuit by Janel Grant, which alleges McMahon directed her to have intercourse with a WWE “famous person” and different males, seeks to void a nondisclosure settlement that Grant says she reached with McMahon in 2022. She stated he agreed to pay her $3 million as half of the deal.
The swimsuit says McMahon solely paid her $1 million, “however didn’t make any additional funds.” Grant was one of a number of ladies who acquired payouts from McMahon over time.
In addition to McMahon, the swimsuit names WWE and John Laurinaitis, the previous head of expertise relations and common supervisor, as defendants.
The swimsuit comes six months after federal lawsuit enforcement brokers executed a search warrant on McMahon and served him with a grand jury subpoena as half of an investigation into McMahon’s thousands and thousands of {dollars} of funds to ladies after allegations of sexual misconduct.
WWE merged final yr with the combined martial arts firm UFC. Both corporations are actually owned by TKO Group Holdings. McMahon is govt chairman of the corporate’s board.
McMahon’s lawyer, and spokespeople for the WWE and TKO didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The grievance says McMahon befriended Grant, who was his neighbor in an residence constructing, in 2019 after studying from the constructing’s resident supervisor that her mother and father had died and that she was in search of a job.
Grant alleges that McMahon quickly pressured her right into a sexual relationship, which she succumbed to.
“When McMahon pushed Ms. Grant for a bodily relationship in return for long-promised employment at WWE, she felt trapped in an unimaginable state of affairs: submitting to McMahon’s sexual calls for or going through break,” the swimsuit says.
The swimsuit additionally alleges: “Given McMahon’s all-powerful place at WWE, coercion was inherent in his
more and more wicked sexual calls for.”
“Specifically, whereas McMahon was CEO of WWE and Ms. Grant was employed as an entry stage coordinator in the authorized division, McMahon recruited people to have sexual relations with Ms. Grant and/or with the 2 of them, directed Ms. Grant to go to Defendant Laurinaitis previous to the beginning of workdays for sexual encounters, and anticipated and directed Ms. Grant to interact in sexual exercise on the WWE headquarters, even throughout working hours,” the swimsuit says.
The grievance accuses McMahon of subjecting her to “excessive cruelty and degradation” that prompted Grant to turn out to be “numb to actuality to outlive the horrific encounters.”
In addition to in search of to void the NDA, Grant’s swimsuit additionally alleges violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, negligence, intentional or negligent infliction of emotional misery and civil battery.
This is breaking information. Check again for updates.