WWE legend Vince McMahon is no longer being probed for allegedly covering up a slew of sexual misconduct allegations, his lawyer’s office confirmed to the Daily Beast on Wednesday.
The federal probe, out of Manhattan, was dropped a day before McMahon’s estranged wife, Linda, is scheduled for a confirmation hearing to become President Donald Trump’s secretary of education.
Vince McMahon, 79, has long been an ally of Trump, donating along with his wife a total of $9 million to the Trump Foundation in 2007 and 2009. More recently, Linda McMahon, 76, gave $6 million to a pro-Trump super PAC before his first term in office.
Investigators said previously they had “established probable cause” to believe McMahon and an ex-lawyer broke the law by creating “false books,” circumventing WWE protocol, and made “false and misleading statements” to company auditors.
McMahon has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Robert W. Allen, emphasized that his case was dropped before a grand jury was asked to decide on whether it should indict McMahon, meaning he was never charged.
“We have been in consistent communication with the government and understand, with no ambiguity, that the investigation has definitively concluded and will not result in charges,” he told the Daily Beast in a statement.
The closing of the investigation, first reported by the New York Post, seemingly ends an unsavory saga for the former face of the WWE, who was revealed in November to be separated from his wife after nearly six decades of marriage.
Vince McMahon paid out more than $1.7 million in fines last month for failing to disclose to the wrestling company’s board settlements related to sexual assault allegations, officials said, which caused errors on WWE’s financial statements in 2018 and 2021.
The secret payments that threw off the company’s books—according to the Securities and Exchange Commission—were $3 million to a female WWE employee and $7.5 million to a female independent contractor. The SEC said those payments were to prevent them from filing sexual assault charges against him.
McMahon has faced a number of allegations over the decades. He was accused of raping a former wrestling referee in a limousine in 1992 after she claims to have refused to give him oral sex. McMahon has always denied the allegation, despite a wrestler corroborating it in 2022. The matter was reportedly settled out of court.
He was accused in 2006 of showing a woman naked photos of himself, groping her, and trying to kiss her inside a Florida tanning salon. Police documented the alleged incident and wrote in a report there was “probable cause” to believe “McMahon did actually and intentionally touch against the will” of the woman. Authorities ultimately decided to not press charges against McMahon, who had been in town for the Royal Rumble in Miami.
Things appeared to really unravel for McMahon in 2022. That was the year allegations of cover-up payments and new sexual assault allegations emerged. He was pressured into resigning as WWE’s CEO the following summer. He returned again months later, but once again resigned after another allegation cropped up.
The most recent accusation came from Janel Grant, a woman who worked in WWE’s legal and talent departments. She alleged that McMahon forced her into a sexual relationship and threatened to fire her if she didn’t oblige.
Grant added that McMahon allegedly sent around pornographic pictures and videos of her to other men in the company. She was identified as the recipient of McMahon’s $3 million settlement that required her to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but she claimed in a lawsuit the CEO shorted her $2 million, allegedly making the NDA void.
McMahon, as he has done in nearly every other instance, denied Grant’s accusations.
