Janel Grant’s lawyer claims Vince McMahon is likely to have had other victims.
On January 25th, news broke that Janel Grant filed a new lawsuit against McMahon. The suit contains horrifying allegations of sexual assault, emotional abuse, and sex trafficking by both McMahon and the former Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.
Grant’s lawyer, Ann Callis, has now appeared on Crime Fix to speak about the allegations and Grant’s reasons for coming forward. According to Callis, her client was “physically and mentally destroyed” by McMahon’s actions and felt “caged and imprisoned” by the former WWE Chairman.
Callis says the filing is the first step and took a lot of courage from Grant, who first McMahon when she needed work after her parents had passed away.
“She believes (filing the suit) is the first step. Filing this lawsuit took some tremendous courage from her. She was in an extremely vulnerable position when she first encountered Vince McMahon.”
“So already, besides being in an inordinately uneven playing field between Vince McMahon and Janel, our client, she still tried to conduct herself… tried to be the best possible employee for the WWE that she could be under the most devastating and sexually depraved circumstances.”
The lawyer thinks that, due to the nature of McMahon’s behaviour, there are likely to be more victims who have not yet come forward.
“Just the way that the grooming of Janel went on, it just indicates that are a lot of indicators that there may be, and probably are, other victims out there. One of Janel’s hopes is that by coming forward, she will give the courage to other victims to come forward.”
The reason Grant has come forward now is to get “ownership” of her story as well as to help pave the way for other victims to come forward.
“She wants her life back. She wants ownership of her story. She wants to help other victims. This is relatively close in time, 2019 when this unfolded, 2020, and her hope is to help other victims, if there are other victims, to come forward because she had the courage and the presence of mind to finally get this done and come forward.”
Vince McMahon Resigns From WWE And TKO
Following the allegations coming to light, one of WWE’s biggest sponsors, Slim Jim, pulled out of promotional activities during the Royal Rumble. In the aftermath of this decision, Vince McMahon announced his resignation as TKO Executive Chairman, ending any involvement with WWE in the process.
H/T to F4WOnline for the above transcription.