Janel Grant, Vince McMahon, and WWE have jointly filed a motion requesting that the court move Grant’s sex trafficking lawsuit into private arbitration, a significant development that could take the case out of the public eye.
The joint motion, first reported by Brandon Thurston on X, was filed ahead of a June 16 hearing on competing motions. The filing states the parties are in active discussions about a potential agreement and are seeking a short adjournment to allow those discussions to progress.
From the filing:
“The parties are in active discussions regarding a potential agreement to arbitrate the dispute in confidential arbitration that would moot those motions. They seek this relief in good faith, to avoid unnecessarily consuming the Court’s and the parties’ resources — and so they can focus on progressing the potential arbitration agreement. The Parties respectfully propose that the Court temporarily adjourn the hearing and allow them to file a Joint Status Report within 21 days.”
McMahon and WWE had been pushing to move the case to arbitration under an arbitration clause in the nondisclosure agreement Grant signed with McMahon in 2022. Grant had previously argued the clause should not be enforced, claiming she was coerced into signing the NDA under duress. Judge Sarah F. Russell will rule on the motion.
Grant, a former WWE employee, filed the lawsuit in January 2024 against McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis, accusing McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking. McMahon resigned from TKO and WWE following the filing. Laurinaitis has since been dropped from the case.