A federal appeals court ruled that Vince McMahons former lawyer was wrong to withhold certain documents from a grand jury investigating how McMahon handled multimillion-dollar settlements with two former WWE employees who accused him of sexual misconduct.
According to The Associated Press, three judges from the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower courts decision, stating that the documents were not protected by attorney-client privilege because of an exception for crime or fraud.
The court found that prosecutors had reason to believe McMahon and his lawyer illegally bypassed WWEs internal policies and created false records to hide the settlements. They allegedly gave misleading information to WWEs auditors, even though McMahon used his own money to pay the settlements.
McMahons lawyer provided many documents to the grand jury but withheld 208, claiming attorney-client privilege. The court ruled that these documents must be turned over because they were part of an effort to hide the settlements from WWE and its auditors. Although the appeals court ruling did not name McMahon, a person familiar with the case confirmed he was the unnamed former Chief Executive Officer of a publicly traded company.
The current status of the grand jury investigation is unclear, and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan has not commented. McMahons representatives also did not respond to the court ruling, though he has previously denied wrongdoing.
The case references a $3 million settlement with one former employee and another $7.5 million settlement with a different employee. One of them, Janel Grant, has filed a lawsuit claiming she was pressured into leaving WWE and signing a nondisclosure agreement. The lawsuit argues that the agreement should be invalid because McMahon failed to pay the full settlement amount.
In September 2023, prosecutors sent legal orders to McMahons lawyer and law firm, asking for all communications related to the settlements. The lawyer, who helped McMahon with the agreements, refused to give some documents, leading to a legal battle.
The appeals court ruled that these documents must be turned over because they were part of an effort to keep WWE and its auditors from knowing about the accusations.
This comes after the SEC charges against Vince McMahon, in which he settled bypaying a $400,000 fineand reimbursing WWE $1.3 million. Nonetheless, we will have to wait and see how the legal battle will continue as its clearly far from over at the moment.
With the legal battle escalating, how do you think this will impact Vince McMahons legacy in WWE? Will he face further consequences, or will he manage to navigate through the controversy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
