Former WWE boss Vince McMahon pushed again on sexual abuse and intercourse trafficking allegations in opposition to him in a courtroom submitting on Tuesday, calling the claims “pure fiction.”
McMahon’s response was filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut. Janel Grant filed a lawsuit in opposition to McMahon and former WWE government John Laurinaitis in January and claimed McMahon lured her to the corporate with the guarantees of a stellar profession, solely to be sexually exploited by him and other people he referred to as his “friends” between 2019 and 2022.
Vince McMahon is available for an XFL sport at Giants Stadium. (Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive by way of Getty Images)
The billionaire denied the allegations as he stepped down as government chairman of TKO Group Holdings. He additional intimated that in Tuesday’s response.
“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,” McMahon’s submitting mentioned. “Contrary to Plaintiff’s false allegations, Plaintiff and Defendant (collectively, the ‘Parties’) engaged in a consensual relationship during which Defendant never coerced Plaintiff into doing anything and never mistreated her in any way.
“In truth, in a love letter Plaintiff wrote to Defendant shortly earlier than the Parties ended their relationship, Plaintiff described Defendant as ‘[m]y best friend, my love and my everything,’ praising him for being the ‘wonderful, tender, vulnerable, heart-on-your-sleeve soul you really are.’ It is incredulous that Plaintiff, a then 42-year-old lady who claims on her resume to have a legislation diploma from Pace University, would have written these phrases to Defendant months after all of the occasions within the Complaint of alleged abuse, coercion, and ‘sex-trafficking’ befell.”
McMahon’s filing further claimed that Grant visited his Connecticut condo at “all hours” of the night and that Grant lived with her “long-time fiancé” Brian Goncalves. Ann Callis, Grant’s lawyer, told the New York Post that Goncalves had allowed Grant to stay with him after she lost her parents.
Vince McMahon at WrestleMania XX. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
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In Grant’s initial lawsuit, it was revealed she joined WWE in June 2019, months after the death of her parents. Grant said she was vulnerable at the time when the relationship with McMahon began.
“Those statements are full falsehoods,” McMahon’s filing claimed. “Based on a foreclosures motion in opposition to Plaintiff and her dad and mom, Plaintiff’s father handed away on April 18, 2017—two years earlier than Plaintiff met Defendant – and his marital standing was recorded as ‘widowed’ “confirming Plaintiff’s mother had passed earlier.
“Court data additional present that opposite to her declare of ‘around-the-clock caregiving,’ Plaintiff’s father lived in a senior care dwelling in Stamford, Connecticut earlier than he handed away— not together with her—and the Grants’ neighbor would convey Plaintiff’s mom dinner and ‘help around the house’ earlier than she handed.”
Callis responded to McMahon’s filing in a statement to Post Wrestling.
“Vince McMahon has by no means recognized a storyline that he doesn’t twist to suit his personal shameful narrative,” Callis said. “Her father was in in-home hospice throughout his closing days the place Janel continued to look after him across the clock. Prior to his loss of life, she had been caring for her blind, wheelchair-bound mom. Using the grief of somebody who misplaced each of her dad and mom is an all new stage of disgusting.
Then-WWE proprietor Vince McMahon throughout WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on April 3, 2022. (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
“She was not dating at the time. 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.”
A lawyer for Laurinaitis, who was named in Grant’s preliminary lawsuit, additionally denied the allegations in opposition to the previous wrestler to the New York Post.
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