According to a new report from POST Wrestling, Vince McMahon and WWE filed on Monday evening, opposing Janel Grant’s request to obtain any new evidence from them before the court considers whether her sex trafficking lawsuit will end up in private arbitration.
McMahon’s legal team wrote that “The Court should refuse to indulge Plaintiff’s [Grant’s] improper fishing expedition and deny the Motion in full”, thus dismissing Grant’s efforts to obtain evidence from a period of more than six years, allegedly related to the arbitration question. However, WWE’s legal team was forceful and objecting to the fact they should be required to produce further evidence.
POST Wrestling also notes Grant’s discovery request listed twenty different categories of evidence, including internal communications records and meeting minutes from WWE’s Board of Directors dating as far back as 2019.
WWE’s lawyer Paul Weiss wrote that “Grant is not entitled to motion-related discovery. She has entirely failed to allege sufficient facts calling into question the validity of the arbitration provision…Grant’s document requests are a transparent attempt to circumvent the Court’s stay order,” WWE’s counsel continued, “and initiate full merits discovery before the Court is able to decide Defendants’ motions to compel arbitration.”
Grant’s legal team claims their client was “in an extreme state of duress and coercion at the hands of Vince McMahon” when she signed the nondisclosure agreement. The legal team for McMahon states that if Grant actually was coerced in any sense, she would already have evidence in her possession that she would have been sent to her, such as text messages or emails.
“Grant has failed to present any allegations, let alone ‘reliable evidence…that she did not intend to be bound by the arbitration provision or that the agreement to arbitrate was induced by fraud or duress.”
In a statement to POST Wrestling, Grant’s representatives said that McMahon and WWE are attempting block basic discovery requests “that go [to] the heart of whether the NDA and its arbitration clause are valid…If they have nothing to hide, they should embrace this opportunity for transparency.”
Grant, who served as a Paralegal for WWE, initially filed her lawsuit in January 2024, which was made public the Friday before the Royal Rumble. Grant alleges sex trafficking, sexual abuse and assault by McMahon. Her suit also included now former WWE Executive John Laurinaitis, who was officially dismissed from the case by United States District Court of Connecticut Judge Sarah F. Russell, after agreeing to cooperate by handing over evidence to Grant’s legal team.