Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'My Love': Woman Suing Vince McMahon For Rape Claims He Forced Her To Write Love Letter

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Janel Grant is suing WWE Founder Vince McMahon accusing him of raping her and trafficking her to his friends. McMahon's lawyer has been quoted as saying their relationship was consensual and she cites a love letter Grant wrote to him in 2021 as proof. Grant's lawyer says she was coerced into writing the letter. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with radio host Kidd Chris and attorney Jonna Spilbor about the letter and what it means for WWE and Grant's lawsuit in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The woman accusing WWE founder Vince McMahon of sexual assault wrote a letter to him calling him, my love, my everything. We'll tell you what she's saying about it, and we'll look at how much it could hurt her case, if at all. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Janelle Grant makes horrific

allegations of sexual assault against Vince McMahon. She claims she was forced into a threesome with McMahon and one of his former executives, John Laurinaitis, when she worked at WWE. Grant even claims she suffered physical injuries from sex with McMahon and other men. She claims she was given a job at WWE that was actually a cover for her to be at McMahon's beck and call for sex. She claims she was given gifts and later forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement and paid a million dollars of a $3 million payout. The suit's allegations of sexual abuse are difficult to read. Grant also

claims McMahon defecated on her during a threesome and then wouldn't let her wash it off. I should mention that John Laurinaitis' attorney has told the New York Post that he expects to be exonerated in some fashion and that he was a victim of McMahon's as well. But this letter that has surfaced and was first published in the New York Post paints a different picture of the relationship according to McMahon's lawyer. The letter was written on Christmas Eve in 2021 and it begins, Here we go again, draft 24, which is even harder to begin after we spilled our hearts to each other a few nights ago. The letter continues, is there any way that I can adequately

tell you how much my life has changed for the better since we met? How can I put into words how you have filled the void in my heart and that I thought I would remain empty forever? Grant also wrote, after almost three years together, it's like my life isn't even real to me unless you're there and in it, and I'm sharing it all with you. I want to bring in two people who are the perfect people to discuss this love letter. Kid Chris is the host of The Kid Chris Show on WEBN in Cincinnati. He's also a wrestling aficionado, and Jonna Spielberg is a legal analyst and host here at Law & Crime. Chris, I'll start with you. You've been following wrestling for years. You've certainly

been following this. We've talked a lot about it. What are your thoughts on this love letter? Oh, well, the love letter, boy, to me, it seems obviously like manufactured. You know, I mean, I've been a wrestling fan for a long time and I followed Vince McMahon when he was getting sued by the government for the steroids and I followed Vince McMahon when he was getting uh sued by the government for the steroids and all that stuff and he had this attorney uh named Jerry McDivitt I think that's what his name is and they're good friends my guess is that because this was going on that uh maybe he was told hey you should get her to write you a letter so it doesn't seem like some kind of uh a thing where uh you, you're like using her or whatever.

And plus, he's in a high position. I would imagine that if anything were to happen down the road, he was going to use this as a well, she pursued me type of thing, I guess. I mean, does that make sense? Yeah. No, I'm just surprised that this is your take on it, because I wasn't sure what you would think of it because it i mean it says draft 24 we're on draft 24 of this letter according to the letter and you know i'm not judging either way i mean the allegations in the civil suit are disgusting but you're looking at it and you're reading it and you're saying you think that vince mcmahon seriously put her up to this i believe so because if I think during it too, she was explaining in the text

that I'm almost done with that letter and whatnot and talking about the letter. So to me, it sounds like they talked about it. Like, you know, maybe he was like, oh, I would love if you wrote me a love letter, you know, to show me how much you love me and all that stuff, which is probably, you know, something that was told to him to protect himself going into this or during this whole situation.

And that's a good point. That's a, you're referencing the text message that Ann Callis, the attorney for Janelle Grant provided where she's saying, oh, I'm all tapped out today. You know, my fingers hurt and I'm working on your letter. So it's not like this was a big, you know, Christmas surprise. Like I wanted you to write you a nice letter. Who gives a heads up before they send a love letter? You know what I mean? Hey, I'm working on a love letter for you. Nobody does. So that's what just seems fishy about the whole thing in the first place. That's a really interesting take. So,

John, I want to bring you into this from the legal perspective. You know, draft 24 of a letter. My gosh, I don't think I've ever written 24 drafts of anything, maybe in college, like on a paper or something like that. Like, I can't even imagine doing 24 drafts of much of anything. If somebody asked me to do 24 drafts, if I'm on draft like 10, I'm like, you know what, maybe this is not for me. So what are your thoughts from the legal perspective? Does this damage her ability in the, or does it damage her claims in the civil suit? I mean, the civil lawsuit, she does have material in there to back this up, but Vince McMahon's attorney, we've reached out to her. She has not yet responded to

our calls for comment. But she's saying this shows this relationship was consensual. But Anne Callis, the attorney for Janelle Granis, she was coerced into writing this. So this is like a Harvey Weinstein deja vu all over again, right? You've got this high-powered older person who's claiming that he had a consensual relationship with the accuser, which is what I'll call her for right now. And then you have the accuser saying, no, no, no, this whole thing was coerced. I didn't want to do any of it. It was forced, et cetera. And it becomes truly a credibility contest. And when you have a credibility contest like this, things like this 24 draft love letter come into play to help prove or disprove whether it was consensual or not

consensual. And I think it's, let's put it this way. In the Harvey Weinstein case, he had several accusers and some of them had similar type written instruments, email saying, calling him their boyfriend, and I can't wait for you to meet my mother, and I miss you, it's been a while. And things that you would not say to your rapist. And I'm just going to be frank, this is a difficult conversation to have. And again, we don't know yet whether the women from the defense perspective, these are women who are looking for a payday. And from the victim's perspective, these are people who were manipulated by high-powered, rich men. And where is a jury going to fall on all of this? I can think of one, and I know this is going to sound bizarre, but it's hard to take the

criminal defense cap off. I can think of a scenario where you might have 24 drafts of a love letter. And that is, let's suppose, you know, Christmas time's coming and this rich Vince McMahon says, I don't want you to get me anything. And she says, well, I just want to express my love. I'm going to write you a heartfelt letter. And because maybe she's as anal as I am, it takes 24 drafts to get there. That's an innocent or that's a plausible explanation. That might not be how it pans out, but that is one plausible explanation for this kind of strange love letter under the circumstances. Or maybe it's an act, a true act of

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Let's talk about what the material is or where it came from. According to people close to Janelle Grant, a spokesperson for Janelle Grant, I want to put a quote up on the screen, said that this quote in particular, I feel understood, accepted, loved, and appreciated for who I am at my core. You see my heart. You see my soul. There are few people who know the secret of making a heaven here on earth. You are one of those rare people. And apparently, Grant's spokesperson said that that line was ripped verbatim from a 1947 movie called The Bishop's Wife. So she's lifting lines apparently from many, many things in order to convey, Chris, according to Janelle Grant's side, her love for Vince McMahon. So your thoughts on that? I mean,

does that give credibility to the fact that this was maybe coerced or maybe she was just making it all up to make him feel good. I don't know. I mean, I didn't know it was from a movie. And why would she be watching that movie? Maybe she was smitten over him and she stole that from a movie and said, oh, this is what I think when I saw this movie. I don't know. Just keep in mind, Vince McMahon made billions of dollars playing people's psyche.

I mean, the professional wrestling, taking people out of their lives to watch this stuff. He is a genius with that. So I honestly think he, again, that he got her to write all this stuff somehow, manipulated her into writing this letter to protect himself because there's a track record of this kind of stuff happening throughout his career with this kind of stuff so I mean maybe with each case he learned a lesson and this was one of the things that he wanted to get was a letter from her what's even creepier is I believe she's I mean she's younger younger than his own daughter if I'm not mistaken and I'm sure she knows her from working there at the headquarters

and stuff. So this is all a mess. My question is, legally, if he were to settle out of court with her, does the government's case collapse because then she doesn't, could she sign an NDA or can they still drag her into that? I think they can still drag her into it, Jonna, because let's look at what's going on right now with Sean Combs. Cassie Ventura sued P. Diddy. They settled the next day and her attorney has essentially confirmed that she's cooperating with the feds. So civil settlement does not prevent the feds from dragging you into something. And as far as the NDA goes, she's already signed an NDA, but she's saying, guess what? That's invalidated because Vince McMahon, you didn't pay me. You didn't fulfill your end of the bargain.

You were supposed to pay me like 3 million bucks. You gave me a little bit of money. You didn't pay me the whole amount. And so they want that thing invalidated. It's pretty much invalidated already because she put it all out there. So, Jonna, the feds could still say to her and compel her to testify or subpoena her. She can't she can't fight that even if they settle the civil suit. You can't get out of criminal charges just because you settle a civil suit. Just like you could have state criminal charges. And if what you've done also crosses over into the federal realm, you could be charged federally criminally as well. So you can't get out from under that way. But isn't that interesting? I forgot for a moment that did this whole thing

come up because he shorted her on the dough that he was supposed to pay? Yes, he didn't pay her. He was supposed to give her like 3 million bucks and he didn't pay at all. Which I'm sure he's kicking himself over now, but why? So that also lends itself to a credibility question. Like, does she truly feel like she's a victim or is this some sort of vindication or vengeance for only getting paid a third of what she thought her payday was going to be and that's that's an uncomfortable fact that goes along with the uncomfortable conversations that have to happen every time these types of cases come up see you could you could say that stuff because you're female if i said that i would get blasted for that.

I might get blasted for it, too. I'll lose my job. No, I agree. But I think it's legitimate. I think you have to play devil's advocate and you have to look at it from the perspective of, I mean, yeah, she was in a vulnerable position. She apparently, you know, her family lost money. There were deaths in the family. She needed a job.

She gets hooked up with Vince McMahon. Apparently it's a job that she doesn't even, nobody even knows what she does at the company. She's apparently working in the talent department, but nobody knows what she does. And then she's involved in all this sex stuff. She's having a relationship with him. And now she's alleging, you know, violent rape and threesomes and take it b word and all this nasty stuff and she's being kind of loaned out to other men um it's really nasty stuff but i think you do have to play devil's advocates like well was she on board with it jonna right until she didn't get her money and that's going to be the argument. Now, think about how kind of difficult that is to prove

to a jury. We are a little bit removed. We're like Me Too once removed at this point in history, but it's still very difficult because she might present as a very sympathetic victim. And can I just tell you from a, not even from a legal perspective, although there is a little crossover, from a woman's perspective, I always find it a difficult hurdle to get over when somebody in her shoes says, you know, he was my boss and I went to his home. I went to his hotel room because to me that can send a message to the person who you're later accusing that you wanted more than the professional relationship. I think in all my years on this planet, I don't think I've ever gone to a boss's hotel room or home alone, you know, unless it was, you know, some sort of party was going on.

I don't think I've ever done it. And I, as a boss, I've never invited anybody to my home alone. I just, why? So again, these are all the little salient facts that are going to have to be deliberated over when and if the time comes. Well, the devil, as they say, is in the details. Chris, what are wrestling fans saying about all of this? I know what they say on Twitter. I mean, some of them are not surprised. And then I have other people coming at me who are like, you know, you're trying to make Vince look bad. And I'm just putting it out there, what's being alleged. I mean, Vince McMahon, his claim is that this was consensual. Janelle Grant's claim is that she was being trafficked.

So what are wrestling fans saying about this? How do they feel about this and how does it impact wwe if at all well it's not impact i mean if anything now that um his son-in-law uh paul levec triple h has been in charge they just had a massive uh two nights in philadelphia for wrestlemania over 80 000 people each. So they're very successful now. As a fan, I'm back watching. I haven't watched it since the pandemic. And it's a hell of a lot better.

And his daughter even came out last night and gave huge props to her husband, which is Paul Levesque, about how that old era is over and this new era is in and all that stuff. So it seems like even she, I was surprised to see her come out and talk to the fans because I think she's mentioned in some of these lawsuits. So I would figure she'd be more underground.

But I imagine, I'm wondering if she thought maybe he's watching and she went and took that shot on television. I don't know. But as, and I don't know, I don't pay attention to the internet wrestling fans because they're unlike me. I don't live in my mom's basement. I have a home and a job and stuff. But as a wrestling fan...

I'll let you take the heat for that one. Yeah, but as a wrestling fan, I just like the entertainment stuff. But as far as the sexual and all that, I've sent you clips in the past of the stuff in the 90s that he was doing on tv and it all falls into place and like i said in the 80s we heard all these the different lawsuits that were happening all the way through the 90s that that referee that female referee that said that he tried to get her to do stuff in the limo and all this stuff and then now that this has come to light, it's kind of like he's got a track record

and, you know, he does the same stuff. We're seeing all the same things in all these different situations. So I don't know. I know as a company for the WWE, it's way past them now. They just cut him out of the picture. When they replay things like highlights and stuff,

they cut his voice out. He's not even mentioned in anything. So it's like he's never picture. When they replay things like highlights and stuff, they cut his voice out. He's not even mentioned in anything. So it's like he's never existed. So they are moving forward. They are saying, like, this is a new era. Vince is out. This is still the WWE you love. But I'm telling you, some of those old clips, they really are pretty misogynistic and nasty.

And you can say, oh, well, it's just a show and it's just joking. I'm sorry. It still permeates, just joking i'm sorry it still permeates jonna yeah it came from someone's brain it came from vince mcmahon's brain to say that stuff so it it's kind of like uh what is it art you know whatever that saying is yeah life imitates art or whatever that's what we're that's is that what we're seeing but jonna i'm just telling you as a mom to a son i would not have my son watching that stuff because I want my son to grow up respecting women and treating women with respect. And you can say all you want, it's a show and oh, you know better and you know different. It still permeates, it still gets into your brain. And I just think that it, it, it's, it's society condoning and sending bad messages about women. Yeah. And that could be, and that's why you're a good mom and your son won't grow up.

I try. Yeah. No, Hey, wait a minute. I grew up. I just told you, I grew up watching this. I'm not a bad guy. Okay. I, and that was not a dig on wrestling fans. I'm just saying, I'm saying, I think it can. Not everybody is Kid Chris. Kid Chris has, you know, he's. I got two daughters and stuff. Yeah. But people said the same thing about rap music too. Remember when rap music was, oh, we got to get rid of this.

This is terrible. The two live crew, all that stuff. And even before that, it was heavy metal caused suicide. You know, we've been through all this stuff, the finger pointing stuff. It's one bad guy that maybe some of his dirty thoughts leaked in the storylines or whatever. But they flushed all that stuff out. So I'm going to defend the WWE in that sense. All right.

Well, we will keep an eye on this on the federal investigation to see how this all unfolds uh kid chris and john you're not buying it with you for coming on thank you and that's it for this edition of crime fix i'm anjanette levy thanks so much for being with us we will see you back here next time