Vince McMahon Denies Janel Grant Accusations In New Filing, Grant’s Lawyer Responds

Vince McMahon has issued a filing in regard to the sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit from Janel Grant, denying accusations against him and seeking arbitration. As previously reported, Grant sued McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE in late January claiming alleging that she was abused and sexually exploited by McMahon during her time in WWE. Those allegations led to McMahon’s exit from WWE and TKO.

POST Wrestling reports that McMahon’s legal team has filed a response to the lawsuit in which he denies the allegation against him and seeks to move the case into arbitration. McMahon denies the charges, with the filing stating:

By publicly filing her salacious, false and defamatory Complaint, Plaintiff has brazenly and intentionally violated a binding contract to arbitrate. The Complaint’s outrageous claims of sexual abuse and coercion are pure fiction—plainly intended to garner publicity—and are flatly contradicted by Plaintiff’s own contemporaneous statements. Contrary to Plaintiff’s false allegations, Plaintiff and Defendant engaged in a consensual relationship during which Defendant never coerced Plaintiff into doing anything and never mistreated her in any way.

The filing further alleges that Grant’s claims of dealing with profound grief” over her parents’ passing and “struggling financially” when they met as being false, arguing that Grant’s father passed in April of 2017 and that her mother had died before. It further goes on to claim that both McMahon and Grant were in other romantic relationships when they were involved and that Grant lived in her the condo of her “long-time fiance’, lawyer Brian Gonclaves, four floors below McMahon’s own condo and would visit McMahon at his condo. It argues that “It is nonsensical that the disturbing alleged acts in the Complaint including violence, coerced sex, and forcing Plaintiff to be defecated on were taking place before Plaintiff returned to her lawyer fiancé four floors below without incident.”

It finally notes that McMahon and Grant entered into a confidential settlement agreement after they ended the relationship in January of 2022 and that any disputes from the agreement would be settled in arbitration. He says Grant violated the agreement by “wrongfully disclosing both the existence of the Agreement and their relationship” at which point he exercised his contractual right to withhold payment otherwise owed under the Agreement.”

Grant’s lawyer has issued a statement to POST Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston which says that Grant and Gonclaves were not dating at the time of their relationship. It reads:

Vince McMahon has never known a storyline that he doesn’t twist to fit his own shameful narrative. Her father was in in-home hospice during his final days where Janel continued to care for him around the clock. Prior to his death, she had been caring for her blind, wheelchair-bound mother. Using the grief of someone who lost both of her parents is an all new level of disgusting…”

“Her ex-boyfriend allowed her to stay in the apartment as she rebuilt her life and resume post-taking care of her parents. She had no job and no other financial support to lean back on.”

If you know someone who is being abused, or if you yourself a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Call 1-800-656-4673 to be connected with the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

New comments from Janel Grant's attorney Ann Callis to Wrestlenomics and other outlets, responding to Vince McMahon's court filing today.

Callis: "Vince McMahon has never known a storyline that he doesn’t twist to fit his own shameful narrative. Her father was in in-home hospice…

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 23, 2024