Law&Crime Sidebar - 5 Most Disturbing Details from WWE's Vince McMahon's Sex Assault Lawsuit

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

From explicit text messages describing violent sex acts to explanations about scheduling threesomes, a lawsuit filed against 78-year-old Vince McMahon is full of graphic information. A former staffer with WWE, Janel Grant, claims she was coerced into a sexual relationship with McMahon and forced to have sex with his friends and colleagues. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down her claims and how McMahon is responding.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: This episode of Sidebar is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/sidebar and get on your way to being your best self!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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 Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller

that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. One of the biggest names in the entertainment industry has once again stepped down after accusations of rape, salt, and human trafficking. We're analyzing the 67-page lawsuit against 78-year-old W.W.E. founder, Vince McMahon, and bringing you some of the most shocking details. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Janelle Grant, a former staffer in

WWE's legal and talent departments, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against World Wrestling Entertainment, more commonly known as WWE, Vince McMahon, the founder of WWE, and and executive chairman, and John Laurenitis, a retired wrestler and head of the talent relations department for WWE. This was filed in Connecticut because McMahon and Grant are both Connecticut citizens and Connecticut is where WWE headquarters is based. Now, first let me tell you, before we even get into this lawsuit, a couple of things. We are mentioning her name, Janelle Grant, because she has chosen to be publicly identified. That's number one. Number two, this lawsuit

includes very, very sexually explicit text messages and descriptions that we cannot show you here. We just will not do it. But what we are going to do is break down some of the most disturbing allegations as best as we can. So to start, there is a line at the beginning of this complaint that I thought was very interesting. And it says, quote, Ms. Grant is filing this lawsuit not just to address her own suffering, but also to act for those who are afraid to speak out. I find that interesting because as we have seen sometimes, when a high-profile person is accused by one person, then others will come out, too.

One person's claims gets the ball rolling. Sometimes they aren't comfortable coming forward immediately. But just to let you know that Vince McMahon, he has already been accused by prior employees of trying to cover up their relationship. So some of this is not new. Having said that, when we get into the details of this, it's kind of unthinkable. But according to the lawsuit, Grant met Mr. McMahon in 2019 when they lived in the same building. Grant's attorney say that she had been the full-time caregiver for her parents who both died

and that the family home was lost in the parents' bankruptcy. The complaint explains that she was in a really low place in her life. Well, after being introduced to McMahon, he befriended her, showed her a lot of attention, allegedly offered her a role with the WWE, told her that he would help her life. Although what that role would be wasn't entirely clear in the beginning, and that seems to be something that McMahon allegedly took advantage of. You see, from the beginning, Grant alleges that McMahon would greet her in his underwear, his condo, pull her close to him, tell him intimate details about his personal life.

Now, Grant says, eventually, she was coerced into a sexual relationship with McMahon in exchange for a new role, WWE, called Administrator Coordinator Coordinator in the Legal Department. Now, while she started there, McMahon eventually transferred her to the Talent Relations Department, headed up by John Laurinitis, again, a co-defendant in this. case, a former wrestler, but despite Grant's alleged pleas to end this essentially quid pro quo sexual relationship with McMahon, it did not, and according to Grant, it only got worse. First, Grant says that McMahon would share sexually explicit photos and videos of her with men both inside and outside of the company, including TV production teams, executives, producers,

crew, even a world famous athlete looking to sign with the WWE. This person is not identified in the lawsuit. and we'll talk a little bit more about this later on. Then McMahon is accused of recruiting individuals to have sex with Grant or participate in threesomes. He also allegedly directed her to have sex with Mr. Laurenitis, who's again named in the lawsuit. She was expected to perform sex acts at WWE headquarters before, during, and after work hours. To give you an example of what we're talking about here and what she was allegedly subjected to, the lawsuit says that on May 9th, 2020, McMahon defecated on Grant's head during a threesome

and commanded her to continue the sexual encounter with the third person referred to as McMahon's friend. She later learned that that third person was McMahon's physical therapist. And just going back to that other allegation about McMahon and Laurinitis having sexual contact with her at the office at WWE headquarters, this was allegedly despite her begging them to stop and each held her down as the assaults happened. They allegedly said to her, no means yes, truly horrific stuff when you think about. The lawsuit just describes these multiple sexual encounters between Grant and McMahon, which Grant says were not consensual. She claims that he assaulted her multiple times with sex toys named after male wrestlers, according to the lawsuit. In addition to her panic attacks, Ms. Grant began experiencing increasingly severe physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, including sleep disruption, dizziness, exhaustion, rashes, weight loss, hair loss, and migraines.

November 2019, Ms. Grant informed Mr. McMahon that her doctor suggested that her symptoms stemmed from trauma and ongoing stress. McMahon mocked her, quote, emotional trauma, my ass. However, on November 20, 2019, McMahon insisted that Ms. Grant see a physician of his choosing. There's another allegation regarding someone identified only as WWE superstar. This is a pro wrestler in the organization. and the allegation is that McMahon used Grant as a sexual pawn to entice this WWE superstar to sign a new contract with the company. During the course of this event, a series of events, McMahon texted Grant a reminder that she was an enslaved object to him saying, quote, I want to drive you lower and lower so low that you might beg me to sell you.

McMahon reportedly showered Grant with gifts financed by the WWE, including tickets to VIP events, cards worth thousands of dollars, clothing, jewelry, flowers, EMW, chef catered dinners, a spa vacation. And then in January of 2022, McMahon had told Grant that his wife had found out about their sexual relationship. He said that her time at the WWE was at an end, but insisted that she signed a non-disclosure agreement in NDA. In the lawsuit, her lawyer say, quote, in the days ahead, McMahon put Ms. Grant under immense pressure to sign, saying that refusing would not only jeopardize at McMahon, his family in the company, but that she'd surely become a public headline, suffer reputational ruin, including from the pornographic content McMahon had captured and faced McMahon's legal resources.

Conversely, McMahon reassured her that her signature would ensure his continued support and protection and safeguard her reputation, ultimately Ms. Grants succumbed to the pressure, and sign the NDA in exchange for payments, which McMahon later stopped making. The lawsuit claims that multiple high-ranking employees at WWE knew about, this sexual relationship as well as assaults allegedly committed on Grant at the offices but did nothing to stop it. Grant's legal team says that she is suffering from PTSD and is struggled with suicidal ideation. Now, this lawsuit has different claims or causes of action that I'm going to go into right now. And remember, in a civil case, the standard of proof is not beyond

a reasonable doubt like we have in a criminal case, but usually preponderance of the evidence. That's a lower standard, meaning that Grant has to show that more than likely this happened, More than 50% that these things happen, that they're true. So it is a lower standard to prove, but you still have to prove your claims nonetheless. Here, not only Grant's count probably heard testifying, but the incredibly sexually explicit text messages that are included in this complaint, the ones from McMahon, yeah, that can definitely help prove her case. And during discovery in the course of a litigation, where they will get more information from McMahon and WWE,

this is going to be evidence from the defendants that Grant hopes will help prove her claims. We can't show you or read you these text messages in the complaint because, honestly, they're just far too graphic and explicit. But they include alleged text from McMahon in which he describes violent sex acts he wants to perform on Grant or have others perform on her. The messages call her all sorts of degrading names. They tell her what other men have said about explicit photos and videos of her. He appears to also be scheduling sexual liaisons between Grant and other men like Laurenitis. The text purportedly from McMahon also repeatedly tell Grant that if anyone were to find out about the relationship, she would lose her job and possibly face legal consequences.

All right, so it's no secret that listening to stories like this McMahon one are tough to hear, and it just reminds you how dark life can be. And, you know, talking to somebody about what you're feeling, what you're going through, that can be a really, really good thing. because your mental health is so important. That is why we have partnered with BetterHelp. They're the sponsor of this episode of Sidebar. BetterHelp is online therapy that can match you to one of their 35,000 licensed

therapists based on where you live, preferences, your schedule. It's designed to be convenient. All you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can also switch therapists any time for no additional charge. And look, therapy, it's not just about trauma. It is about so much more. be a place to work through the challenges that you face in all of your relationships, like in friends, work, family, but it's also helpful in that you can learn positive

coping skills, you can learn how to set boundaries, how to feel empowered to be your best self. So if you're interested and you want to check out more, visit betterhelp.com slash sidebar today to get 10% off of your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P-com slash sidebar. Let's quickly go through all of these counts. There are nine here, and they're important to understand. So the first two, they're asking the court for declaratory relief. You were basically asking for a court to set the record straight about someone's rights. So here, Grant is asking that the NDA that she signed be deemed illegal under federal law, namely the Speak Out Act. She argues that it

invalidates these contracts if there is a sexual assault or harassment dispute. The second claim argues that the NDA is invalid under Connecticut's common law. Now, that's not a statute. Common law is basically the laws that come from judges' decisions and court cases. And here she's saying that the NDA is too broad and that she entered into this NDA under duress, so it's invalid. The third cause of action says that McMahon and Laurinitis violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 or TVPA.

The suit claims that they recruited, enticed, and solicited. granted grant for sexual abuse and exploitation, especially as McMahon traveled across the United States. Crossing state lines becomes a big factor in sex trafficking cases. The allegation is that they used fraud, such as the lure of career opportunities, to coerce grant into sexual activities. It's likewise, count four, is that the W.W.E. knowingly participated in this trafficking and benefited from and facilitated this venture in violation of the TVPA. Count five is negligence, that's when you have a legal duty to use reasonable care, you don't do that and that causes injury or harm. Here, this negligence claim is against the WWE, namely that

they failed as an employer who has the responsibility and duty to make sure their employees are safe to protect. Count six is civil battery against McMahon and the WWE. Now, that is about intentional, harmful, and offensive contact that McMahon allegedly engaged in on Grant. And there is one particular disturbing account that it's cited here, where McMahon allegedly forced Grant to perform oral sex on him in a very, very graphic and violent scene. Now, she claims that WWE is liable for the battery, they're legally liable, because they're legally liable for the actions of their chairman under a vicarious liability legal theory. That is where you hold companies on the hook for the actions of their employees who engage in

wrongdoing if those actions are within the scope of their employment or they were done while they're on the job. Count 7 is also civil battery, except this time it's against the W.W.E. and Laurinitis. So specifically, these forced sexual contact or acts between Laurinitis and Grant, including the ones that were done at his office in the WWE headquarters. Now, counts eight and nine are intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress. This is against McMahon, Laurenitis, and the W.W.E. The basic idea is that they intended or should have known that their actions would cause Grant to suffer emotional distress. And she lists a number of extreme and outrageous forms of conduct, like with McMahon's text messages,

sexual assault, trafficking, exploiting her. Lorinitis, she claims, treated her like a sexual object, including forcing her to travel to his hotel for sexual activity. And the complaint highlights that he and McMahon were the bosses. We can't forget it. These were the supervisors. These were the bosses. That is such an important part of this lawsuit. Now, in terms of what she is looking for, what she's asking for in this lawsuit, A, invalidate the NDA. She can be able to speak about what happened. Two, compensatory and punitive damages. Remember, punitive damages are kind of a way to punish and deter this conduct. And what has happened so far in the result of this lawsuit is that McMahon has resigned from the WWE's parent company TKO Group Holdings.

McMahon said he did that out of respect for the WWE universe, but he denies all of the allegations. And remember, McMahon had previously stepped down as CEO of WWE in 2022 after similar sexual assault allegations were raised. The thing was at the time he never sold his stock. He was the controlling shareholder. So he just came back on the board and then the board voted him to make him executive chairman again. And then WWE and UFC, they merged together to form TKO group holdings.

In a statement, the company said, quote, Mr. McMahon does not control TKO, nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE. While this matter predates our TKO executive team's tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grants' horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally. Now, what is interesting about that statement is that according to CNN, TKO, which is a publicly traded company alerted the SEC in its most recent quarterly filing report that, quote, Mr. McMahon's membership on our board could expose us to negative publicity and or have other adverse financial and operational impacts on our business. The company said in the filing, quote, his membership also may result in additional scrutiny. So that makes me wonder what exactly did they know and understand about McMahon's dealings.

Now, McMahon's team put out a statement saying, quote, I stand by. my prior statement that Ms. Grant's lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene, made up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of truth. I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations and look forward to clearing my name. And look, there are a number ways that this can go, right? McMahon, Laurinitis, the WWE, they could try to settle with her. We recently saw that in the Sean Combs litigation. If they want to fight this, the first thing that we'll probably see is an answer. That's an actual legal filing in response to a complaint. Ultimately, I imagine what a defense could be is they'll try to say

these events never happened, or if they did happen, they were entirely consensual, particularly because of her responses in certain text messages. Counterargument to that, of course, would be that she said or did anything she could do to appease these people. It can get very complicated in these kinds of lawsuits and this kind of litigation. Now, the WWE would try to distance themselves as much as possible, saying they'd have any knowledge of anything like this happening. They would maybe say that the actions of McMahon or Laurenitis were not done within the scope of their employment, but in their personal capacity, that would be a way to get away from that vicarious liability theory that I mentioned before. But it can be tough, especially if you

have this working relationship, if it was done on WWE headquarters premises, that kind of gets complicated. And look, I should tell you right now, there is still an ongoing federal investigation into Vince McMahon, too. In fact, only a few months ago, law enforcement executed a search warrant and subpoena on McMahon and the WWE regarding sexual misconduct allegations. So there are all these different factors,

and we are going to continue to follow this case and see how it progresses. Some very disturbing stuff, but I appreciate you staying with us as we talk about it. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast,

I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.