On October 8th, Representatives for Janel Grant are asking for nondisclosure agreements to be waived in their lawsuit against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. Grant is accusing McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking.
Waiving the NDAs would allow former and current employees and contractors to potentially come forward with allegations.
Kendra Barkoff Lamy, a spokesperson for Grant, spoke with John Pollock and Brandon Thurston of POST Wrestling and Wrestlenomics, and detailed the letter sent to WWE.
When asked if they have heard from former employees, Lamy replied, "I know that Janel's legal team has heard from former employees about their experience within WWE. They themselves, even most recently, up until a couple of days ago, have heard from former employees about this toxic work environment that existed within WWE, and could potentially....we don't know what's going on now, which is part of the reason why we are asking for them to open up their doors, allow these women and potentially men, to speak freely and waive these NDAs if they have nothing to hide. If they claim they've turned the page on this abuse and toxic workplace, then let these people speak about their experience so they can move on."
Asked if there are specific changes WWE could do to improve their workplace, Lamy said, "This is the first step in what they need to do. We all saw the Vince McMahon documentary. He obviously was a big problem within WWE. A lot of the same people who were around when Ms. Grant experienced what she experienced are still there and are still working at that organization. Until we truly know the depth of the problem, we won't be able to understand how as a culture we can move forward."
"Mr. McMahon" premiered on Netflix on September 25 with six episodes. The lawsuit was covered in the episodes, but Ms. Grant was not interviewed. Her team previously said that she would tell her story on her own time.
Asked if she thought the documentary was a positive in terms of bringing awareness, Lamy replied, "We're obviously glad they included Ms. Grant's case in the first and last episode. It's really important because it does frame and does show, even more so, who Vince McMahon was and is as a person. It is a good thing. It has brought a lot more interest. There are a lot of people who love WWE and follow it closely. There are people who have followed Mr. McMahon's career and what he has done. Those kind of documentaries reach a mass audience that frankly may not have known about Ms. Grant's case and what she experienced. It does reach a new and different audience that is important. The more people that know about what has happened to her and what happened at WWE, the better off it is."
When asked if Vince McMahon would have to sign off on the waiving of past NDAs, Lamy said, "The letter says they want WWE and Vince McMahon. It's hard to know who signed what and when. There are all of these pieces. We do know that folks have signed them and they are out there, but without knowing what the NDAs say, it's a little speculative to know who signed which individual NDA."
Executives Paul Levesque (Triple H) and Nick Khan were copied on the letter. Khan was referenced in the lawsuit, but not outright named.
Asked what responsibilities executives have in protecting employees, Lamy replied, "As outlined in the complaint, she is suing both Vince McMahon and WWE. As a company and as an organization. As a company, you have an obligation to protect your employees. If there were people that are still there now who knew about the abuse going on and knew nothing about it, that's a problem and you should and can be held responsible for that. Nick was obviously still there at that time. Triple H was around at that time. There are still people within the organization now, currently, who were there at that time."
Pollock tried to get inside the mind of WWE and asked if WWE could reach a certain bar that would potentially see Ms. Grant to drop them from the lawsuit.
Lamy replied, "If they want to clean up this mess, they should allow these women to speak freely and allow former employees to speak freely. Everybody has read the lawsuit and complaint. It is very detailed in the allegations. There is a reason why she is going after the organization as a whole. It is because as a company you are responsible for protecting your employees. At the current time, the lawsuit is in a stay. The federal government asked her to hang tight as they do their investigation into Vince McMahon. There is nothing happening on her current lawsuit. She's in a little bit of a holding pattern of waiting. In the meantime, that's part of the reason why and why it's even more important and why she wanted to send this letter, to show that the sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let's get in there. You guys say this was all Mr. McMahon's doing and there was no one else in the organization that participated, then great, put it back on him and show it was him and there are no other issues. We can't know that until they become transparent and allow these people to speak."
TKO Executive Ari Emanuel was also copied on the letter. Ari previously criticized CAA for supporting Harvey Weinstein, asking executives to step down or take a leave of absence.
Lamy noted that California and other states have the "Speak Out" act which allows alleged victims to speak on issues of misconduct even if an NDA was previously signed.
"One thing Ari Emanuel and Endeavor could do is say, 'We believe so strongly that employees should have the ability to speak out about their experience in the workplace that whatever law applies in California should apply in Connecticut as well. These employees that have experienced things or have NDAs in Connecticut, we're going to take what law applies here and say even though it's not a law in Connecticut, they can speak freely.' He can put his money where his mouth is, so to speak, because Endeavor does own WWE," she said.
It was noted that WWE has not publicly commented on the letter requested NDAs be waived and that WWE generally doesn't comment on such issues, preferring to highlight the positives in the company and wanting to move on from Vince McMahon.
"I'm sure they are. I'm sure they're probably not thrilled they got this letter yesterday and they got a lot of calls from reporters. Not responding is actually the worst way to handle it. There is a way you can say, 'We're going to open our doors' or 'We're going to review the letter.' My general sense is they don't tend to respond to these kind of things, but that doesn't mean we're not going to continue to push for what is right and that is the reason why Ms. Grant came forward to begin with, to tell her story and tell what happened because she believes there are others who deserve to be able to speak about their experience," she said.
Lamy closed by reiterating that Grant is a human who has experienced a lot of trauma, and that she will tell her story on her time.
Fans are encouraged to watch the full interview in the video below.
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Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
