Janel Grant Files Motion To Strike Vince McMahon's "Inflammatory Lies"

Content warning; discussion of alleged sexual assault

With Vince McMahon filing a memorandum earlier in the week seeking arbitration in the lawsuit brought against him by Janel Grant, Ms. Grant's legal team has now filed to strike statements made by McMahon in his response to this suit.

Yesterday saw Janel Grant's attorneys file a motion to strike against what they've labelled "inflammatory lies" and "vicious falsehoods" that attack "Janel's moral character in an attempt to harass and intimidate her into submission". Notably, that McMahon filing claimed Vince and Ms. Grant were in a consensual relationship, and disputes that Janel was in financial difficulty prior to meeting McMahon, nor that she was dealing with profound grief following the death of her parents, or that she acted as a caregiver for her parents.

The motion from Ms. Grant's legal team reads:

"Plaintiff Janel Grant (“Janel”) respectfully requests that the Court exercise its inherent power to strike the inflammatory lies made in Defendant Vincent K. McMahon’s (“McMahon”) memorandum of law in support of his motion to compel arbitration, filed April 23, 2024, ECF No. 30-1 (the “Motion”). Instead of using his Motion in the appropriate manner—to raise legal arguments concerning whether this dispute must be submitted to arbitration—McMahon instead uses the Motion’s “Preliminary Statement” as a platform to launch vicious falsehoods attacking Janel’s moral character in a transparent attempt to harass and intimidate her into submission.

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McMahon’s easily refuted lies have no place in this case. It was not necessary, reasonable, or responsible to use a public filing to impugn Janel’s moral character. Indeed, McMahon’s desperate attempt to distract from the legal substance of the Motion highlight its weakness and the weakness of his overall case.

This Court has inherent power to strike a parties’ filings. Accordingly, Janel respectfully requests that the Court exercise that power to strike the Motion’s “Preliminary Statement” in its entirety and admonish McMahon and his counsel that such statements have no place in civil litigation."

In response to this, Vince McMahon's lawyer Jessica T. Rosenberg released the following statement to POST Wrestling:

"Plaintiff had no right to bring this case in a public court but did so anyway. Now that she chose this public forum to falsely accuse Mr. McMahon, she wants to silence his ability to respond. She can’t have it both ways."

A former WWE employee, Janel Grant brought a lawsuit earlier in the year alleging sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis. McMahon has denied all allegations, while Laurinaitis's lawyer claims that his client is also a victim of McMahon.

Tuesday saw McMahon's legal team file to compel arbitration in this case, which means they are looking for the court to recognise an arbitration clause in an NDA signed by Ms. Grant and opt to send this matter to a private hearing with an independent arbitrator rather than seek litigation.