Vince McMahon’s team have filed further documentation on their motion to move the Janel Grant lawsuit to arbitration.
Back in January 2024, Vince McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and multiple counts of sexual misconduct by Grant, who was a former WWE employee. As a result of the allegations, McMahon resigned from his executive position as Chairman of the Board of WWE and as a member of the TKO Holdings Board of Directors while still denying the allegations.
In April, McMahon once again denied the allegations and claimed that Grant’s allegations were “complete falsehoods” while filing a motion to move the lawsuit to arbitration. While Grant’s lawyers filed their own motion to have this stricken from the record, Vince McMahon’s team issued their own response where they described Grant’s claims as “meritless” and “the height of hypocrisy.” McMahon also claimed in the filing that his relationship with Grant was consensual and in “many instances the Plaintiff was the initiator.”
Vince McMahon Issues New Filing
On May 14th, Vince McMahon’s legal team submitted a “Statement of Undisputed Material Facts” which is stated as providing further support in their motion to move the case to arbitration. Prior to the supporting statements, the following is listed in the opening statement:
[McMahon] believes the material facts stated below are undisputed and conclusively resolve the forum dispute before the Court. Should the Court find it necessary to conduct a hearing on any issue, Defendant respectfully reserves his right to introduce additional evidence that bears on witness credibility, sophistication, state of mind, and similar issues.
The list of statements includes McMahon and Grant had previously been in a 3-year relationship that ended in January 2022 and when the relationship ended both parties “entered into a contract entitled Confidential Settlement Agreement, General Release and Covenant Not to Sue.” Additionally, it is stated that Grant negotiated the monetary compensation that McMahon would pay.
In January 2022, Grant’s attorney sent a revised version of the agreement that included the following statement:
In the event of any dispute arising under or out of this Agreement, its construction, interpretation, application, performance or breach, the parties agree to first attempt to resolve such disputes informally and prior to taking any formal legal action to resolve such disputes.
In the event any such dispute cannot be resolved informally, all parties hereto agree that the sole and exclusive legal method to resolve any and all disputes and/or controversies is to commence binding arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act pursuant to the procedures of the American Arbitration Association and to do so by sealed proceedings which preserve the confidential and private nature of this Agreement.
The parties agree to discuss the venue for any such arbitration proceeding if and when such a dispute arises which cannot be informally resolved; but in the event the parties cannot agree on a venue then the exclusive venue for any arbitration proceeding shall be in Stamford, Connecticut. The prevailing party, as determined by the arbitration tribunal, shall be entitled to recover from the non-prevailing party all of its attorney’s fees and costs.
The filing also details a severability, provision, which is included in the agreement:
“In the event that any provision of this Agreement is held to be void or unenforceable by an arbitration panel or court reviewing an arbitration decision, the remaining provisions shall nevertheless be binding provided, however, if any of the confidentiality obligations of this Agreement are ever contended to be unenforceable by Grant, or are found to be unenforceable by any tribunal, Grant agrees that she shall return all monies paid pursuant to this Agreement to McMahon.”
In addition to this, the filing issues a breakdown of the agreed payments between Vince McMahon and Janel Grant, which was $1 million within 10 days of the agreement being executed and 4 more payments of $500,000 to be paid on February 1st each year beginning in 2023.
On the same day, WWE also issued a filing to support the arbitration motion.