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Vince McMahon filed a motion yesterday before The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, seeking the court to agree with McMahon that his agreement with Janel Grant is legally bound to enter private arbitration even though she filed a lawsuit against him, WWE and John Laurinaitis. McMahon's argument is that arbitration was included in the agreement Grant and McMahon signed.
For the first time before the Court, McMahon denied the salacious and disgusting allegations against him, claiming:
"As this is a pre-answer motion, Defendant does not specifically address the substantive merits of Plaintiff’s counts asserted against him. For the avoidance of doubt, however, Defendant vehemently and categorically denies all allegations of wrongdoing in the Complaint, including Plaintiff’s outrageous claims that Defendant coerced Plaintiff into unwanted sexual acts, sexually assaulted and/or battered her, trafficked her, and defecated on her. Those are false statements intended for publicity. When the Complaint’s allegations are adjudicated in the proper forum (arbitration), witnesses are called to testify under oath, and all communications between the Parties (including those authored by Plaintiff which she intentionally did not share in her Complaint) are produced, the allegations and claims will be disproven and Plaintiff will be exposed for the liar she is."
McMahon's filing attempted to paint Grant in a completely negative light, to the point that even her claims of meeting him after caring for her parents as they were dying were alleged to have been false:
"At the time the Parties met in 2019, Plaintiff was not “dealing with profound grief [from her parents’ deaths] and struggling financially” as described in her Complaint and she had not been “devoting years to around-the-clock caregiving” of her parents. Those statements are complete falsehoods. Based on a foreclosure action against Plaintiff and her parents, Plaintiff’s father passed away on April 18, 2017—two years before Plaintiff met Defendant – and his marital status was recorded as “widowed” confirming Plaintiff’s mother had passed earlier.
Court records further show that contrary to her claim of “around-the-clock caregiving,” Plaintiff’s father lived in a senior care home in Stamford, Connecticut before he passed away— not with her—and the Grants’ neighbor would bring Plaintiff’s mother dinner and “help around the house” before she passed. In fact, contrary to her story of around-the-clock devotion in the Complaint, the foreclosure action on her parents’ home reveals that Plaintiff was adamant that she did not want to be associated with “any of this” and failed to respond to requests regarding the foreclosure action. Indeed, Plaintiff was so absent in her parents’ lives that it took substantial time and significant effort for the creditor in the action to locate her and identify her as her parents’ next-of-kin."
McMahon's filing presented his relationship with Grant in, as you might imagine, a completely different light:
"In addition to falsehoods about her own background, Plaintiff’s Complaint is further riddled with fabrications and omissions about her relationship with Defendant. During the Parties’ consensual relationship, Plaintiff and Defendant knew that the other was also involved in other romantic relationships. Plaintiff was living in Park Tower, a luxury multi-million-dollar building in Stamford, Connecticut with her long-time fiancé, attorney, Brian Goncalves (“Goncalves”). Since August 2022, Goncalves has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer of TelevisaUnivision, and Goncalves previously held positions with Mastercard and HewlettPackard. Plaintiff and Goncalves lived in the same luxury building as Defendant—just four floors below—when the Parties began their affair in 2019. Plaintiff would often visit Defendant at his condominium at all hours, including at 2:30 a.m., to pursue their affair and then return back to her condominium with Goncalves the same night. 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. Defendant was never contacted by Goncalves (who was on the Board of the luxury building), anyone at the building, the police, any friends of Plaintiff, or any lawyer or advocate for Plaintiff at any time about the fictitious, extensive, years-long abusive behavior alleged in the Complaint.
After three years and having decided to return to their partners, in January 2022, Plaintiff and Defendant agreed to end their consensual affair and separate from each other, with Plaintiff leaving the company where they worked, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (“WWE”). Plaintiff and Defendant entered into a binding contract to memorialize that agreement, entitled Confidential Settlement Agreement, General Release and Covenant Not to Sue.
Plaintiff initially wanted to include a term in the contract mandating that Defendant could not move out of their shared building but Defendant refused to include that term and did move out. Plaintiff’s contention that that contract, between Defendant and WWE, on the one hand, and Plaintiff, on the other, is not enforceable is utterly meritless—but that is an issue for the arbitrator. In fact, because the Parties wished to “preserve the confidential and private nature” of any disputes under the Agreement, they specifically provided in the Agreement that disputes would be resolved through arbitration. Plaintiff was represented by a lawyer who negotiated the Agreement for her before she executed it."
McMahon stated that he stopped making payments to Grant after the original $1 million due to the story leaking and blamed her, citing that she broke their agreement.
The filing notes, "In this lawsuit, Grant is (erroneously) contending that the confidentiality provision is unenforceable. Defendant therefore reserves his right to, at the appropriate time and in the appropriate forum, demand (among other things) that Plaintiff return the monetary compensation of $1,000,000, which Defendant has already paid Plaintiff under the Agreement."
So, McMahon is teasing that he may counter-sue Grant for the return of money already paid to her (an one would think damages as well.)
Obviously, the court has not yet ruled on this motion, which also included references to the "love letter" Grant wrote McMahon that was picked up several weeks ago by The New York Post.
As we noted yesterday, the defendants in the lawsuit brought by Janel Grant against them will have to officially respond by the following dates:
John Laurinaitis - 5/14.
Vince McMahon - 5/24.
World Wrestling Entertainment - 6/1.
Initially, it was believed all would have to respond by Mid-May. The court filings would indicate otherwise.
PREVIOUS JANEL GRANT LAWSUIT COVERAGE
VINCE MCMAHON, WWE SUED BY FORMER EMPLOYEE ALLEGING SEX TRAFFICKING AND ABUSE AT HANDS OF MCMAHON, JOHN LAUIRINAITIS
by Mike Johnson
1/25/2024 12:57 PM
STATEMENT FROM ATTORNEY REPRESENTING JANEL GRANT, WHO IS SUING WWE AND VINCE MCMAHON
by Mike Johnson
1/25/2024 1:04 PM
NBC AFFILIATE IN RI PUBLISHES COMPLETE MCMAHON LAWSUIT, MORE ON WHY JANEL GRANT FILED SUIT
by Mike Johnson
1/25/2024 2:43 PM
HORRIFIC' - TKO GROUP HOLDING ISSUES STATEMENT ON VINCE MCMAHON ALLEGATIONS IN LAWSUIT
by Mike Johnson
1/25/2024 4:46 PM
ANSWERING SOME OF YOUR VINCE MCMAHON LAWSUIT QUESTIONS
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 9:13 AM
FIRST SIGN WWE MAY BE DISTANCING FROM VINCE MCMAHON
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 10:33 AM
WWE PULLS VINCE MCMAHON SHIRT FROM ONLINE SALES
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 2:06 PM
FORMER WWE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBER STATES INVESTIGATION INTO VINCE MCMAHON INCLUDED 'OUTREACH' TO JANEL GRANT, HER ATTORNEY
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 4:56 PM
JANEL GRANT STATEMENT REGARDING MCMAHON, WWE LAWSUIT TO BE RELEASED THIS EVENING VIA CRIME PODCAST
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 5:30 PM
INTERNAL WWE REACTION TO VINCE MCMAHON RESIGNATION
by Mike Johnson
1/26/2024 8:49 PM
JANEL GRANT'S ATTORNEY MAKING ROUNDS DISCUSSING VINCE MCMAHON LAWSUIT
by Steven Fernandes
1/27/2024 12:09 PM
INTERNAL REACTION TO VINCE MCMAHON'S TKO & WWE RESIGNATION, WHERE THINGS STAND WITH THE JANEL GRANT LAWSUIT AND LOTS MORE
by Mike Johnson
1/29/2024 9:10 AM
WWE HALL OF FAMERS THE BELLAS COMMENT ON WWE ALLEGATIONS IN GRANT LAWSUIT
by Mike Johnson
1/29/2024 5:26 PM
NEWSWEEK COVERS CALLS FOR BOYCOTT AGAINST WWE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
by Mike Johnson
1/29/2024 7:07 PM
DAVE SCHERER DISCUSSES THE VINCE MCMAHON LAWSUIT, HIS RESIGNATION AND MORE ON SLATE.COM'S WHAT NEXT PODCAST
by Mike Johnson
2/1/2024 9:09 AM
JOHN LAURINAITIS' ATTORNEY COMMENTS ON JANEL GRANT LAWSUIT, SAYS HE WAS A VICTIM OF VINCE MCMAHON AS WELL
by Mike Johnson
2/1/2024 4:09 PM
BROCK LESNAR PULLED FROM WWE 2K SUPERCARD GAME
by Mike Johnson
2/1/2024 8:33 PM
VINCE MCMAHON UNDER FEDERAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, MCMAHON COMMENTS
by Mike Johnson
2/2/2024 8:38 AM
REPORT: VINCE MCMAHON NDAS WERE CREATED WITHOUT WWE KNOWLEDGE
by Mike Johnson
2/2/2024 5:01 PM
WHO TOLD VINCE MCMAHON TO RESIGN FROM TKO AND WWE
by Mike Johnson
2/7/2024 10:00 AM
BRET HART RIPS APART VINCE MCMAHON
by Mike Johnson
2/9/2024 11:24 AM
BROCK LESNAR-WWE 2K UPDATE
by Mike Johnson
2/22/2024 12:44 PM
VINCE MCMAHON LOOKING TO SELL MORE TKO STOCK
by Mike Johnson
3/4/2024 7:10 PM
NICK KHAN, BRAD BLUM AND MORE IDENTIFIED AS WWE CORPORATE OFFICERS IN JANEL GRANT LAWSUIT, WWE COMMENTS
by Mike Johnson
3/11/2024 5:54 PM
JOHN LAURINAITIS ACKNOWLEDGES JANEL GRANT LAWSUIT BEFORE COURT IN CT, WILL RESPOND WITHIN 60 DAYS
by Mike Johnson
3/21/2024 12:29 PM
NEW YORK POST OBTAINS LOVE LETTER FROM JANEL GRANT TO VINCE MCMAHON, GRANT CLAIMS SHE WAS 'COERCED' TO WRITE IT
by Mike Johnson
4/1/2024 12:50 PM
NBC COVERS VINCE MCMAHON'S LIFE AFTER WWE
by Mike Johnson
4/17/2024 2:54 PM
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