Vince McMahon claims sex-trafficking accuser would sneak into his penthouse to cheat on her fiancé: court docs
Disgraced WWE mogul Vince McMahon fired back at a former employee who accused him of sex trafficking and sexual harassment, claiming she would sneak into his penthouse apartment to get in his bed before slinking back to her fiancé’s den in the same building, according to a court filing.
McMahon alleged that 43-year-old Janel Grant willingly took part in a sexual relationship with the wrestling tycoon for three years and denied all of her explosive charges — including that he defecated on her head – in response to her lawsuit filed in a Connecticut federal court Tuesday.
The filing laid out a litany of alleged lies that Grant lobbed at McMahon in the lawsuit she filed last January — after he failed to fork over $3 million in hush money to keep their relationship a secret.
Chief among McMahon’s claims was that Grant “would often visit” him at his Stamford condo “at all hours, including at 2:30 a.m., to pursue their affair and then return back to her condominium” where she lived with her fiancé, attorney Brian Goncalves, according to the filing.
McMahon — who resigned as executive chairman of WWE-parent TKO Group Holdings following Grant’s lawsuit — and Goncalves lived four floors apart in the Park Tower Stamford, the luxury 36-story condo building formerly known as Trump Parc Stamford.
Grant’s lawyer said that Grant and Goncalves had called off their engagement and that he “allowed her to stay in the apartment as she rebuilt her life.”
“Vince McMahon has never known a storyline that he doesn’t twist to fit his own shameful narrative,” Ann Callis told The Post.
The Post has sought comment from Goncalves.
In her lawsuit, Grant claimed she was “dealing with profound grief” when she met McMahon in March 2019.
McMahon’s filing alleged that Grant fabricated aspects of her life story — including lying about “devoting years to around-the-clock caregiving” of her dying parents and “struggling financially” when they met.
Grant’s father lived in a senior home in Stamford before he passed away and was not cared for by his daughter, the filing alleged.
Her mother died in 2017 — two years prior to Grant meeting McMahon, it was alleged in the document.
Callis said Grant’s father was in in-home hospice until his final dying days “where Janel continued to care for him around the clock.”
“Prior to his death, she had been caring for her blind, wheelchair-bound mother. Using the grief of someone who lost both of her parents is an all new level of disgusting,” Callis said.
The filing asked the court to stay Grant’s lawsuit so as to allow the two parties to settle any disputes in binding arbitration.
Grant was employed by McMahon at WWE headquarters in Stamford between June 2019 and March 2022.
She sued to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement that she signed in which she made her bombshell allegations.
Grant had received $1 million of the $3 million payout but McMahon withheld the next installment, scheduled to be disbursed in early February, after she filed her lawsuit.
The lawsuit accused McMahon of defecating on her head during a threesome and using sex toys on her that he named after wrestlers — claims that McMahon has called “salacious,” “false,” and “pure fiction.”
She also alleged that McMahon directed her to have sex with other execs and an unnamed wrestling star, as well as sharing nude photos and explicit videos of her without her consent with other WWE employees, according to her lawsuit.
John Laurinaitis, WWE’s former head of talent relations and general manager, was also named in the lawsuit.
The Post reached out to Laurinaitis for comment.
Laurinaitis’ attorney, Edward Brennan, had said that the 61-year-old ex-pro wrestler, known in the ring as Johnny Ace, “denies all of the allegations made against him in the complaint and asserts that he is a victim in this matter, not a protagonist.”
In an earlier bizarre twist in the case, McMahon’s attorneys produced a gushing love letter — obtained by The Post — that they say Grant wrote to McMahon in an email that was dated Dec. 24, 2021. However, Callis has claimed her client was coerced into writing the letter.
The email was obtained from Grant’s laptop computer by a law firm hired by WWE’s board to investigate claims against McMahon, who is the subject of a federal probe over allegations that he sexually assaulted and trafficked other women.
McMahon has denied the allegations.
“After almost 3 years together, it’ like my life isn’t even real to me unless you’re there and in it and I’m sharing it all with you,” Grant wrote in the Christmas Eve letter to McMahon which was obtained by The Post.
Callis had told The Post that McMahon instructed Grant to write the letter.
“Frankly it’s pretty disgusting that Vince’s weeks-late attempt to defend his horrendous behavior — behavior he claims to this day never happened — is to try to showcase letters that Vince himself coerced her to write,” Callis said.
“His psychological torture of her continues — as is typical of abusive predators who respond to women speaking out with increased threats. While Janel isn’t a stranger to his intimidation tactics, this is a new low even for him.”
McMahon’s attorney, Jessica Taub Rosenberg, denied that her client coerced Grant to write the letter, calling the claim “revisionist history.”
“She wrote it of her own accord,” Rosenberg, a lawyer with Kasowitz Benson Torres, told The Post. “The fact that the letter shows it was the 24th draft speaks volumes.”
A spokesperson for Grant told The Post that McMahon would often request that she write love letters that resembled those exchanged by celebrities and which were published in magazines.
Additional Reporting by Shannon Thaler