Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - WWE Execs Identified as Part of Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Scandal: New Details

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

The names of four current and former WWE corporate officers referenced in a federal lawsuit accusing WWE founder Vince McMahon of rape and sex trafficking have become public following a story from Front Office Sports. Janel Grant filed the lawsuit against WWE founder Vince McMahon in late January claiming that he hired her as a cover for him to use her as a sex slave. The suit claims the four corporate officers knew about the relationship and covered it up. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Brandon Thurston and James Pollock from Front Office Sports about the names and what it could mean in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.If you’ve ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/YouTubeTakeoverHost: Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: John Pollock https://twitter.com/iamjohnpollockBrandon Thurston  https://twitter.com/BrandonThurstonCRIME 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. Naming names, attorneys for the woman suing WWE founder Vince McMahon, accusing him of sex trafficking, are also accusing his lieutenants of being aware of what was happening and helping to cover it up. Two people who broke the news about the names are here. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Janelle Grant filed that explosive lawsuit accusing Vince McMahon of offering her a job

that was really a cover for her being a sex slave. Grant has accused McMahon of coercing her into violent sex acts and trafficking her to other men and forcing her into threesomes with his right-hand man, John Laurinaitis. Now, four people identified as corporate officers numbers one, two, three, and four have been revealed in a new report by Front Office Sports. WWE corporate officer number one is identified as WWE president Nick Khan. Number two is identified as WWE Chief Operating Officer Brad Blum. Number three is identified as Vince McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon. And number four is identified as former WWE General Counsel Brian Nurse. It's important to note that none of the four are accused of assaulting Janelle Grant. I want to be very

clear about that. They are accused by Granting Janelle Grant. I want to be very clear about that. They are accused by Grant's lawyer of knowing about Vince McMahon's relationship with Grant and either taking steps to cover it up or being a part of her leaving the company and the NDA she signed, along with the $3 million payment she was supposed to receive. John Pollock and Brandon Thurston broke the news about the names behind the numbers. Guys, thanks so much for coming on. First of all, tell us a little bit about why this matters, particularly was the WB president and chief revenue officer. He's a member of the board of directors. Another person whose identity is revealed here is Brad Blum, who is the current WB chief operating officer. So for starters, these are the two executives who we've learned more about in terms of what Janelle Grant is alleging.

Those two people are still very much involved with leadership in WWE. This story, it is one of power that Vince McMahon was able to have in this position, not just from his voting shares, but within this culture at WWE. And this does shine a light on four individuals that had significant titles within the company and what options were at their disposal, seeing a relationship that at the very least could be seen as inappropriate without even getting into all of the allegations in the complaint. And let's talk about a little bit about what's alleged in the complaint as far as the names go. As far as Blum goes, I mean, Brad Blum would reach out to her. It's in, you know, bullet point number 58. He would

reach out to her and talk to her about this proposed job. She claims he would hardly ask her really any real questions. Then we move on to Brian Nurse, who was told to offer Janelle Grant this job, according to her complaint,'t a job per se a legitimate job that maybe this was going to be somebody brought in who was just going to be at Vince McMahon's disposal I mean is that what you guys are kind of gathering here that's certain in the narrative that Janelle Grant presents is that she struck up a relationship with Vince, who turned out to be the CEO of WWE. And he wields a lot of power in his company at this time, at least. And he got her a job that they didn't necessarily have a fit for her in. But he's the boss. So he got to get her a job and got to get her the benefits that go with that job, whether

or not there was really a place for her, whether or not there's really a workflow for her. That is definitely her side of the story. And she's also kind of alleging that Brian Nurse was kind of rude to her, treated her very coldly. It was almost like she's alleging that she would walk into the room and he would be laughing and joking around with other people in this legal department where she was supposed to be working and that he would kind of just turn that off. Like it was almost, he was hostile to her is what she claims.

So, so what does that tell us? Well, I think without, it really opens it up to, you know, speculation. And we did seek out Brian Nurse for, for comment, which he did not respond to us for this story. That was Janelle Grant's characterization of Brian Nurse and someone that she was working under for a period. But you look at just what we know of in that Janelle Grant is, a position is essentially created for her in this legal department at $75,000 a year.

And then within a year, being moved up to a director position that was initially to be a VP role, and they tailored it down to a director role with the promise that a VP role would come. So it is not typical that you see that kind of a leap from $75,000 to $200,000 a year. You're seeing all these pieces here that at least, you know, you can certainly see if you are someone in these positions that something is off here. But how much is known, it remains to be seen. And did that inform Brian Nurse in terms of his interactions with General Grant, that's for him to address. Sure, and that'll eventually come out, I would think, in depositions and things like that,

depending on how far this lawsuit goes. We want to thank Morgan & Morgan for sponsoring today's Law & Crime YouTube Takeover. If you've seen our videos, you know that Morgan & Morgan is a proud sponsor of ours and that our content proves the world is not always safe. When you are hurt, it can be confusing. It can be scary and you don't always know where to turn. Well, Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm, can help. You can submit a claim in just one click on your phone and your

injury could be worth millions. Morgan & Morgan doesn't settle for lowball offers. In just the past couple of months, they've gotten some huge verdicts. There was one for $12 million in Florida, $26 million in Philly, and $6.8 million in New York. And by the way, all of these were much higher than the highest insurance company offer. So if you are injured, you can start by easily submitting a claim at www.forthepeople.com slash YouTube takeover or by dialing pound law. That's pound 529 on your cell phone. You know, and Brad Blum apparently told her, according to the lawsuit, hey, a leap from where you are to VP, she was supposed to be a VP apparently,

was going to be a huge leap, you know, and they said, let's dial this down a little bit and let's put you into talent relations under John Laurinaitis, who is accused of taking part in these kind of violent threesomes with Vince McMahon, with Janelle Grant. So this Blum is being accused of kind of knowing exactly what was going on, but kind of tailoring jobs that could be they didn't want to raise any red flags. She's saying that he told her this could put a target on your back if we put you in a VP position too quickly. The impression I get from that is that if we promote you too quickly, it'll make it more obvious what's happening here. It's hard to imagine that Brad Blum and Nick Kahn didn't have knowledge that there was some sort of sexual relationship between Vinceince mcmahon and janelle grant uh there's nothing alleged to be clear in the complaint that that those executives had knowledge of the sexual assaults that may have

been happening that are that are certainly alleged uh throughout this complaint um but but they are alleged to have supported and helped vince you know keep this you know what the plaintiffs say is a sex trafficking scheme to keep that going along. And we've made that clear earlier in the show that we are not saying that any of these people took part in any of the abuse of Janelle Grant or what she alleges. They're accused of being part of a cover up. So Nick Kahn also was a part, according to Janelle Grant, of fashioning this NDA and this agreement where she would leave the company. She was just to be paid three million dollars. We know she didn't get all of the money. So what does this mean for Nick Khan? Let's say

this turns out to all be true. What does this mean for Nick Khan, for Brad Blum? They're still with the company. What does this mean for them in the future of WWE? I think you're getting into territory where a lot of the complaint is communication that was relayed from Vince McMahon to Janelle Grant, a number of instances that infer his conversations with Nick Khan and Brad Blum. So I think that you would need to substantiate that this was Vince McMahon being truthful in these conversations and what he told Janelle Grant and how involved Nick Khan and Brad Blum were privy to some of the facts and what was going on and orchestrating this.

And then, you know, kind of the confidence that these are two individuals that are still in very high prominent leadership positions. And are they prepared that they can handle situations such as this if they were to arise? We don't have a Vince McMahon figure anymore in the company, but this is still something that you are fostering a corporate culture that there needs to be checks and balances.

And if there is some kind of grand grievance to this, there has to be people that can step in and stop this from happening. I think at the core of this complaint from Janelle Grant is her stating that if those structures were in place, I would have had some protections. I had none. I had no one to go to. And did this go so unchecked, this power that Vince McMahon had, that even these executives that had high-ranking positions, did they feel that they could do anything without threatening their own job title. And if I could add to that. Oh, sure. If I could add to that, there's one scene depicted in the complaint where Janelle Grant is described in a conversation that she had with Vince, where Vince is telling her a story

about a conversation that Vince had with Nick Khan and Brad Blum, where Blum and Kahn, according to Vince, expressed concern about the relationship with Janelle and Vince. And they expressed concern, but Vince reassures them that she can be trusted. And they were eventually supportive of Vince's relationship with Janelle Grant. WB has commented with some of its first comments on the story that we've had yet, and they have denied that that conversation involving Nick and Blum and Vince took place. Obviously, there's only three people who really know whether or not that conversation took place. Yeah, of course. And one of them is no longer with the company. He resigned. And he's under criminal investigation. I mean,

that's another piece of this, guys. You know, the Wall Street Journal reported in the last month or so, month and a half, that Vince McMahon is under criminal investigation by the feds for sex trafficking. You know, I know that was a Wall Street Journal exclusive. Have you heard anything more about that? No, we are certainly with great interest, like following this, because that is like, just to frame it like this is a civil suit. And that's the extent of things with the complaint from Janelle Grant. But if we're talking about a federal investigation, especially as it pertains to sex trafficking, I mean, that is something that there could be an enormous can of worms that is opened, not just from this case,

but if you are going historically in WWE, that they had an enormous scandal involving several underage ring boys in the early 90s. So this is the extent of what a federal investigation could uncover. You could only speculate it at this point of how damaging it could be and Vince McMahon being at the center of that. And for any reassurance about there's definitely an investigation happening. That's not just something that's been reported on background and been reported by outlets, but that there's an SEC

filing that came out last year in the summer that disclosed that there is an investigation and that Vince McMahon's phone was, there was a subpoena executed on him and a search was executed on him. So there's definitely an investigation happening. There is an investigation and we want to be clear that no criminal charges have been filed. But a grand jury apparently has been impaneled, a federal grand jury, and they've been investigating this. Just finally, guys, Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon's daughter. She was a huge part of WWE for many years. She is revealed to be corporate officer number three. And she is not really mentioned a lot through this civil suit.

I think there's like one or two mentions of her. And she was described as, you know, motioning to Janelle Grant at maybe a meeting or two and saying, you know, come sit by me. So so what what role does Stephanie McMahon was also aware of this relationship and was condoning it? Or what is your take on that? She's definitely saying that Stephanie McMahon had knowledge and had knowledge of other inappropriate sexual conduct that Vince was engaging in, allegedly. But like you said, there's very little that's mentioned here about WCorp officer number three, who is Stephanie McMahon. And I would be very interested to know what her thoughts are, what her memories are of these events that are described and what knowledge she may or may not have had. We did reach out to her and I feel similarly about officer number four, who is Brian Nurse, who may have been opposed to what was going on.

Very interesting, guys. Well, we really enjoyed reading your story and we'll continue to follow your reporting at Front Office Sports. Thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot for having us. And I also want to mention Tim Marchman, who worked on this story with us and was a really vital part of the reporting as well at Front Office Sports. Definitely. I reached out to WWE's spokesperson for a comment about this reporting.

So far, we have not heard back. That's it for this edition of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here next time. Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's

YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Vine. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests. And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.