Judge Approves Janel Grant’s Amended Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon, Holds Off On Discovery

Janel Grant’s amended lawsuit against Vince McMahon, WWE and John Laurinaitis will move forward. As previously reported, McMahon and WWE filed motions asking the court to deny Grant’s amended lawsuit that was filed in January and featured new details in her allegations of sexual assault, abuse and trafficking against McMahon. POST Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston reports that the federal judge in overseeing the case has accepted the amended lawsuit, which will move forward in its latest form.

The defendants in the case argued that the amended lawsuit shouldn’t be allowed because it was in “bad faith,” but the court found that Grant met the legal threshold to revise the complaint at this stage of the lawsuit. The ruling by Judge Sarah F. Russell did not evaluate the statements themselves, nor did it rule on the request by the defendants to move the lawsuit to arbitration.

In an additional ruling, Russell ruled that discovery in the case will be held off, approving a motion by the defendants that argued discovery would be wasteful if the case went to private arbitration. Grant is being allowed to request specific “motion-related” discovery that would pertain to the issue of arbitration.

McMahon, WWE, and Laurinaitis have been trying to get the lawsuit moved into private arbitration due to the arbitration clause in Grant and McMahon’s nondisclosure agreement that was signed in January of 2022. Motions to compel arbitration are expected to be resubmitted by June 13th and Grant could ask for discovery related to those motions by June 23rd.

Representatives for Grant said in a statement:

“We’re grateful that Judge Sarah Russell let the facts prevail today and granted our motion to amend Janel Grant’s complaint against Vince McMahon and WWE. The amended complaint is essential to understanding the extent of McMahon’s abuse and trafficking of Ms. Grant and the degree to which WWE failed her. We look forward to moving forward with Ms. Grant’s amended complaint and taking another step toward bringing the truth to light and ensuring Ms. Grant’s allegations against McMahon and WWE are taken seriously.”