![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-20-100316-678x381.png\" "\\"Janel")
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By: John Pollock & Brandon Thurston<\/p>\n
In her first public appearance, Janel Grant spoke about the past years of her life and the restrictions she has faced from a non-disclosure agreement with Vince McMahon.<\/p>\n
Grant alleged in her January 2024 lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted and sex trafficked by McMahon during her employment with WWE. McMahon has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
The former WWE paralegal appeared on Thursday at a briefing for the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, among other survivors, advocates, and legislators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people living and working in fear here in Connecticut,\u201d Grant said in her 16-minute address, in which she contended that despite McMahon\u2019s exit from the company, workers at WWE\u2019s Stamford offices remain fearful. \u201cThere is a headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, right now that is full of intimidated people that I care very much about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Grant opened, stating, \u201cBy a series of miracles that I can\u2019t account for, I\u2019m alive today\u201d, proceeding to describe her life since the Wall Street Journal\u2019s first report<\/a> in June 2022.<\/p>\n I got a call that I didn\u2019t expect on the day of a very big meeting of a new job I had, and it was in front of my new bosses, and it was in front of a high-rise full of residents whose homes I was entrusted to protect.<\/p>\n So imagine me getting a phone call I didn\u2019t expect, saying that at any minute the Wall Street Journal would be publishing a story about me, Vince McMahon, and a non-disclosure agreement.<\/p>\n I was told, if anybody asks me about this, I can\u2019t make a comment, I can\u2019t acknowledge it, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m not okay, and If anybody approaches me, I can\u2019t acknowledge years of life to people who saw me live it.<\/p>\n And it was like somebody set fire to my home intentionally with me still inside of it.<\/p>\n So I blacked out and I ended up in a closet with a belt and a stool placed under a little rod.<\/p>\n And thank God somebody saw me and stopped it.<\/p>\n The Journal\u2019s Joe Palazzolo and Ted Mann reported<\/a> that McMahon made a secret settlement agreement, revealed to be worth $3 million, with \u201ca former employee\u201d without naming Grant. This agreement was brought to the attention of the WWE\u2019s board of directors in March that year, and the board launched an investigation.<\/p>\n Grant stated, \u201cWhen an NDA is used to conceal dangerous behavior, it simply relocates the harm to the next employee, the next office, the next victim\u201d.<\/p>\n She spoke about isolating herself from society as a result of this, noting she went outside ten times last year to emphasize the threat and power she felt she was \u201con the other side of.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant said she is deeply struggling, financially devastated, and has no family, but thanked everyone for listening to her.<\/p>\n She described experiencing \u201ccoercive control,\u201d a concept her legal counsel has also asserted in her civil lawsuit against McMahon and WWE. She alleges that she was subjected to such control and that the concept has helped her understand her experiences.<\/p>\n This NDA was a tool that Vince could use to justify anything while I remained in a system of exploitation and actually in a position for anyone to exploit me.<\/p>\n Grant specifically noted that WWE reached out to her after the first reporting by the Journal to participate in a joint statement that would label the relationship with McMahon as \u201cconsensual\u201d and implied they were willing to offer something in exchange, which Grant interpreted as money. Grant said she refused to put out a joint statement and that the company went ahead and called it a consensual relationship without her consent, which was published in a follow-up report by the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n Separate representatives for WWE and McMahon did not respond to a request from POST Wrestling to comment on the accuracy of that assertion by Grant.<\/p>\n In its second installment on the scandal that uncovered four multimillion-dollar NDAs with women formerly employed by WWE, the Journal reported in July 2022<\/a>:<\/p>\n The company is cooperating with the board inquiry, a WWE spokesman said. Mr. McMahon\u2019s relationship with the former paralegal was consensual, the spokesman said, adding that the company is taking the allegations seriously.<\/p>\n Grant said that she spent \u201csix figures\u201d to participate in the WWE\u2019s investigation with legal retainers and \u201cmedical care that saved my life\u201d.<\/p>\n I believed that somehow I would be interviewed for this investigation and get my life back and figured out what happened.<\/p>\n Then the feds reached out ahead of speaking with me.<\/p>\n So while our hair was on fire and getting everyone onboarded, we gave them my evidence and said, review this in advance.<\/p>\n The feds informed us that this was now a covert investigation into human trafficking and the criminal misconduct of WWE, Vince McMahon and this NDA.<\/p>\n And if you want to know why this case, my federal civil lawsuit, is not an employment law case, that is because the feds requested that I say nothing, that this be covert, that they could do the work that they needed to do to investigate human trafficking and criminal misconduct.<\/p>\n Federal authorities have not publicly discussed the investigation or confirmed whether trafficking or other alleged misconduct by McMahon was being investigated. Criminal charges were not brought against him, though he was required to repay WWE $1.3 million and submit to a $400,000 penalty<\/a> to the Securities and Exchange Commission stemming from the previously undisclosed settlement payments that covered both McMahon and the company as parties.<\/p>\n Grant filed her lawsuit in January 2024 and described it as a choice she was hesitant to make because of what it would mean for her life.<\/p>\n So I don\u2019t know how many more red flags you need, but going into 2024, when I filed my federal civil lawsuit at the last conceivable second, because I really didn\u2019t want to do this, I knew what I would be about to throw my life into, but I had been dragged in by this NDA into a federal investigation, the SEC, all the consequences, all the things that have happened that have made my life so small and isolated, I didn\u2019t start that.<\/p>\n Grant also criticized a storyline on WWE programming in the summer of 2024, saying, \u201creporters and viewers noticed there were parallels between a storyline that unfolded for several months on television and my situation.\u201d<\/p>\n She did not mention which storyline, but parallels between Grant\u2019s case and the Liv Morgan story with Dominik Mysterio<\/a> were not lost on viewers \u2014 specifically a scene where Dominik receives a text from Morgan<\/a>, which he then shows to the other male members of Judgment Day, whose reactions imply it contained nude photos.<\/p>\n The Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence is pushing for stronger protections for incarcerated survivors and further transparency and accountability. They are pushing for changes to the state\u2019s NDA laws that they believe silence survivors. \u00a0<\/p>\n POST Wrestling has contacted representatives of McMahon, WWE, and Grant for comment, and we will update this report with any comments or clarifications they provide.<\/p>\n