Vince McMahon’s lawyer was wrong to withhold documents
sought by grand jury, court rules
By DAVE COLLINS
Updated 9:42 PM EST, February 10, 2025
A former lawyer for pro-wrestling impresario Vince McMahon
was wrong to withhold some documents from a federal grand
jury as it investigated how the former WWE boss handled
multimillion-dollar settlement agreements with two female
employees who accused him of sexual abuse, a federal appeals
court ruled Monday.
Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York
upheld a lower court ruling that said the documents were not
protected by attorney-client privilege because of an
exception for “crime or fraud.”
The appeals court said the lower court judge found
prosecutors had reasonable grounds to believe that McMahon
and his lawyer illegally “circumvented” the WWE’s internal
controls and created false records when they concealed the
employees’ claims and settlement agreements from the
company, and that they made false and misleading statements
to the company’s auditors — even though McMahon paid the
settlements with funds that did not come from the company.
The appellate panel said that while McMahon’s lawyer
submitted many materials in response to a grand jury
subpoena, they also submitted a log of 208 documents that
were being withheld under assertions of attorney-client
privilege.
Though the identities of the parties were not disclosed in
the appeals court opinion, a person familiar with the matter
confirmed the unnamed “former Chief Executive Officer of a
”publicly traded company” was McMahon. The person insisted
on anonymity to discuss details that have not been made
public.
The status of the grand jury investigation was not
immediately clear. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan
has declined to comment when asked about the investigation,
which it has not publicly disclosed.
Representatives for McMahon, who has denied wrongdoing, said
they had no immediate comment on the court ruling. McMahon
has previously suggested that he was no longer under
investigation.
In January, McMahon said in a statement that “nearly three
years of investigation by different governmental agencies”
into his actions had ended. The statement came as the
federal Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had
settled charges against McMahon over his failure to disclose
the settlement agreements with the two now-former employees
to WWE officials.
“In the end, there was never anything more to this than
minor accounting errors with regard to some personal
payments that I made several years ago while I was CEO of
WWE,” the statement said. “I’m thrilled that I can now put
all this behind me.”
The appeals court, however, said in Monday’s ruling that the
case “concerns proceedings currently before a grand jury. At
present, no indictments have been issued.”
The opinion disclosed some new details of the grand jury
probe.
Representatives for one of the former employees who got a
settlement agreement from McMahon, Janel Grant, declined to
comment Monday.
McMahon resigned from WWE’s parent company in January 2024
after Grant filed a federal lawsuit accusing him and another
former executive of serious sexual misconduct. At the time,
McMahon stepped down from his position as executive chair of
the board of directors at WWE’s parent company, TKO Group
Holdings. He continued to deny wrongdoing following the
filing of the lawsuit.
McMahon stepped down as WWE’s CEO in 2022 amid a company
investigation into allegations that match those in the
lawsuit.
Grant has said she was pressured into leaving her job with
the WWE and signing a $3 million nondisclosure agreement.
The lawsuit, which alleges sexual battery and trafficking,
also seeks to have the agreement declared invalid, saying
McMahon breached the deal by giving her $1 million and
failing to pay the rest.
The $3 million settlement is mentioned in Monday’s appellate
court ruling, along with another $7.5 million settlement
McMahon made with another former employee.
The Associated Press does not normally name people who make
sexual assault allegations unless they come forward
publicly, which Grant did.
Prosecutors served subpoenas on McMahon’s lawyer, who is
unnamed in court documents, and the attorney’s firm in
September 2023, seeking all communications between McMahon,
his attorney and the law firm regarding the two former
employees, according to the appellate court. The lawyer
helped McMahon negotiate the settlements, the court said.
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When the lawyer withheld some of the documents claiming
attorney-client privilege, prosecutors asked the lower court
to compel production of the records — leading to the appeal
decided Monday.
The appellate judges wrote, “Because the settlement
agreements resolving the Victims’ claims were ‘structured
and negotiated ... to keep them hidden from (the Company),’
the district court found that ’all communications about the
claims and settlement agreements were made in furtherance of
the criminal scheme to keep (the Company) and its auditors
unaware of the allegations.’”
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