Federal Court Rules Vince McMahon’s Lawyer Wrongfully Withheld Documents in Grand Jury Probe

A federal appeals court ruled that Vince McMahon’s 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 court’s 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 WWE’s internal policies and created false records to hide the settlements. They allegedly gave misleading information to WWE’s auditors, even though McMahon used his own money to pay the settlements.

McMahon’s 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. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan has not commented. McMahon’s 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 McMahon’s 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.

“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.’”

This comes after the SEC charges against Vince McMahon, in which he settled by paying a $400,000 fine and reimbursing WWE $1.3 million. Nonetheless, we will have to wait and see how the legal battle will continue as it’s clearly far from over at the moment.

With the legal battle escalating, how do you think this will impact Vince McMahon’s legacy in WWE? Will he face further consequences, or will he manage to navigate through the controversy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!