Sexual assault trial against Vince McMahon suspended pending Justice Department investigation

A civil lawsuit accusing WWE founder Vince McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking has been put on hold pending the completion of a Justice Department investigation, according to the attorney for the former WWE employee who sued McMahon.

McMahon resigned from the board of TKO Group, the holding company that majority-owned Endeavor, which merged WWE and UFC, in January 2024 in the wake of allegations made by former WWE employee Janel Grant. Grant sued the executive in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Her lawsuit names McMahon, WWE and former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis as defendants.

While the Justice Department continues its investigation into WWE and McMahon, Grant’s lawsuit has been put on hold for six months.

Ann Callis, the attorney representing Grant, said in a statement on Thursday (May 30): “Ms. Grant has agreed to the request of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to stay her case against Mr. McMahon, WWE and Mr. Laurinaitis due to an ongoing non-public investigation. We will cooperate with any appropriate next steps.”

In July 2023, WWE announced that federal agents had executed a search warrant and subpoenaed McMahon before a federal grand jury in connection with the sexual misconduct investigation. WWE also requested legal documents related to the investigation. To date, no charges have been filed in this investigation.

Nicholas Biase, public affairs director for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.

Reached for comment, Jessica T. Rosenberg, an attorney at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP who represents McMahon, said, “We remain confident that the evidence will demonstrate that Ms. Grant’s allegations are false and that her complaint is nothing more than a fabricated, vindictive narrative from a disgruntled ex-girlfriend.”

McMahon has strongly denied the allegations made in Grant’s lawsuit. In a statement released upon his resignation from the TKO board, he said: “I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is full of lies and obscene fabricated incidents that never occurred and is a vindictive distortion of the truth. I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless allegations and look forward to clearing my name. However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its Board Members and shareholders, partners and voters, and all the employees and Superstars who have helped make WWE the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my position as Chairman of the Board and the TKO Board, effective immediately.”

Grant’s lawsuit alleges that McMahon abused and sexually exploited her while he was CEO of the wrestling entertainment company, and that the manager allegedly sold her to other men to recruit potential wrestlers. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages as well as a declaratory judgment that a nondisclosure agreement Grant signed during her employment with WWE is “void and unenforceable” and does not bar any of the plaintiff’s claims against defendants McMahon and WWE.

McMahon resigned as CEO of WWE in June 2022 while the company’s board of directors conducted an investigation into alleged hush money payments to women who accused him of sexual misconduct. In March 2023, McMahon reimbursed WWE $17.4 million for costs the company incurred related to or “as a result of” the board’s special committee’s investigation. As CEO of WWE, McMahon made personal payments totaling $19.6 million that should have been accounted for as expenses, the company said. Of that, $14.6 million was related to the alleged misconduct from 2006, the company said, while the additional $5 million went to Donald Trump’s charity, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

McMahon returned to the company in January 2023 as executive chairman to lead efforts to sell WWE, which merged with UFC last year as part of the deal brokered by Endeavor, creating TKO Group Holdings as a separately traded public company. To date, McMahon has earned about $1.5 billion from the sale of TKO Group stock. After those sales, McMahon owns about 8 million shares of TKO Group stock, according to his most recent filings; McMahon has pledged 7.17 million of his shares as collateral “to secure his obligations under loans” from Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association.

According to Grant’s lawsuit, McMahon and Laurinaitis – on WWE property and using WWE funds – sexually abused and trafficked Grant “both for their own pleasure and as collateral to secure talent contracts with prospective wrestlers they recruited.” McMahon “repeatedly used sex toys named after other WWE employees, wrestlers and performers to sexually prime Ms. Grant and trade her with those same people,” the lawsuit states.