Vince McMahon’s lawyer says feds ended probe into ex-WWE boss’ alleged hush-money payments to female employees

Federal prosecutors have reportedly dropped an investigation into Vince McMahon, the controversial wrestling promoter and the estranged husband of Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon.

‘This is simply the result of an appeal of a procedural matter that was argued five months ago,’ one of McMahon’s attorneys, Robert W. Allen, told The New York Post. ‘We have been in consistent communication with the government since that time and understand, with no ambiguity, that the investigation has definitively concluded and will not result in charges.’

Despite Allen’s statement, there remain questions about the scope of the federal investigation and the specific reasons it was brought to a sudden end – if that is, indeed, what happened.

DailyMail.com has reached out to McMahon’s attorneys, Justin Department spokespeople and attorneys of Janel Grant, one former WWE employee currently suing the wrestling promoter in federal court over allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking. McMahon has repeatedly denied Grant’s allegations. 

A year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was being investigated by federal prosecutors over allegations of ‘sexual assault’ and ‘sex trafficking.’ However, a federal three-judge panel with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave a very different impression of that federal probe in Friday’s ruling. In fact, Friday’s ruling makes no reference to sex trafficking.

Without naming McMahon, the ruling refers to ‘the subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation’ and whether he ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to circumvent the company’s internal accounting controls’ to ‘conceal multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.’

Sources familiar with the case told The Post the unnamed CEO being referred to in the ruling is, indeed, McMahon.

The panel ruled Friday that an unnamed former attorney for the ex-CEO was wrong to withhold documents from the grand jury amid the probe into alleged hush-money payments with two female employees accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Case documents were not protected by attorney-client privilege, the judges ruled, because of an exception for ‘crime or fraud,’ and therefore should have been shared with the court.

If the federal investigation has been abandoned by prosecutors, as Allen is claiming, it would come as a major surprise. In June, federal judge Valerie Caproni ruled the federal government ‘established probable cause to believe’ McMahon and one of his former lawyers broke the law.

Specifically, Caproni cited evidence in her June ruling that McMahon and his lawyer ‘circumvented [the Company’s] internal controls and created false books and records,’ ‘concealed the Victims’ claims and settlement agreements from [the Company],’ and ‘made false and misleading statements to the Company’s auditors.’

Caproni and the three-judge appellate panel have both ruled that McMahon’s conversations with lawyer were not subject to attorney-client privilege.

Friday’s ruling revealed the appeals court has examined files showing McMahon’s unnamed former attorney ‘specifically instructed’ him to discuss payoffs ‘via text instead of email for the express purpose of avoiding the Company gaining knowledge of it.’

There had also been a Security and Exchange Commission probe into the payments worth a reported $10.5 million. However, the SEC announced in the final days of the Biden administration it settled the civil claims with McMahon over his failure to disclose payments to the WWE and its parent company, TKO.

McMahon famously resigned from TKO in January of 2024 after Grant sued him over allegations of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

Grant claims she was pressured to leave the WWE  and sign a  $3 million nondisclosure agreement with McMahon. Her lawsuit aims to have that agreement declared invalid, saying McMahon paid just $1 million. 

The $3 million settlement is mentioned in Friday’s appellate court ruling, along with another $7.5 million settlement the promoter allegedly made with another former employee.

Last week, long-time WWE Brock Lesnar was named as a defendant in an amended complaint in the ongoing civil case.

The filing includes new disturbing allegations against McMahon and other members of the wrestling company, naming Lesnar as the wrestler he allegedly enticed into staying under contract by using Grant as a ‘sexual pawn.’

The complaint says in 2021, McMahon was embroiled in continued discussions with Lesnar over a return to WWE when he offered her to the wrestler and told her to create personalized sexual content for a WWE superstar, the complaint alleges.

According to the suit, McMahon shared explicit photos with Lesnar and told Grant: ‘He likes what he sees.’

Then, allegedly after Lesnar agreed his new WWE contract, McMahon is said to have sent Grant a message in August 2021, telling her ‘that part of the deal was f***ing U.’

The complaint had previously detailed the allegations but had not named Lesnar, instead citing an anonymous fighter. The Wall Street Journal had previously identified the wrestler in question as Lesnar.

Representatives for Lesnar have not responded to a request for comment. DailyMail.com has also contacted WWE for comment.

An attorney for McMahon told DailyMail.com: ‘As expected, the proposed amended complaint is nothing more than the latest publicity stunt in an ongoing smear campaign. It is filled with desperate falsehoods from a team that continues to disregard the law and the truth.’

In October, Grants attorneys sued Dr. Carlon Colker in Connecticut, where she claims she was drugged by the physician with unknown substances after being referred to the clinic by none other than McMahon.

Grant seeks to compel Colker and the clinic, Peak Wellness, to turn over her electronic medical and billing records as well as any messages between McMahon and the physician concerning herself.

McMahon, who was allegedly in regular contact with Colker, was provided access to Grant’s private medical records and her treatments, according to the lawsuit.

Colker has denied the allegations.

In her January filing, Grant claimed McMahon defecated on her during a threesome and forcefully penetrated her with sex toys, which he named after his wrestlers.

She also alleged that McMahon and another WWE executive locked her in a room at the WWE’s Stamford, Connecticut headquarters in June of 2021 and took turns sexually assaulting her during the work day.

McMahon is additionally accused of trafficking Grant to other men and sharing nude photographs of the plaintiff.

Grant is seeking unspecified damages from McMahon, who has repeatedly denied her allegations.