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That was the headline from a New York Post article this week anyway.
The February 7, 2025, opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the latest statement from Vince McMahon’s legal team present conflicting narratives. While the appeals court describes McMahon as the “subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation,” his attorney insists the case has definitively concluded without charges.
The court’s ruling from last Friday, issued as part of an appeal—which was a surprise to the public—regarding attorney-client privilege claims, upheld the lower federal court’s decision to compel McMahon’s former lawyer (likely Jerry McDevitt) and law firm (likely K&L Gates) to turn over documents under the crime-fraud exception. The opinion indicates that probable cause exists to believe McMahon attempted to criminally circumvent WWE’s internal legal review process for significant contracts.
Since the six-month pause on Janel Grant’s lawsuit against McMahon—requested by prosecutors—was lifted in December, it seems unlikely that McMahon will be charged with any crimes.
McMahon’s legal team insists the case is over. McMahon’s attorney, Robert W. Allen, issued a statement to POST Wrestling on Tuesday in response to the court’s ruling:
“This is simply the result of an appeal of a procedural matter that was argued five months ago. We have been in consistent communication with the government since that time and understand, with no ambiguity, that the investigation has definitively concluded and will not result in charges.”
This aligns with McMahon’s previous statement last month following the SEC’s settlement announcement, in which he declared, “The case is closed.”
Yet the first sentence of the court’s ruling from last Friday states that McMahon is “the subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation”.
This isn’t an outdated reference from months ago—the ruling was issued just days ago, based on recent filings. Is the court’s opinion referring to the status of the cases at the time the appeal was happening? Were the judges unaware of the status of the case, given the secrecy of such investigations? Is McMahon’s lawyer wrong? If the case has been dropped, would the appeals court still go ahead and make a ruling that the grand jury should be able to see evidence?
So far representatives from the Southern District of New York (SDNY) have declined to comment on whether the investigation is still happening, which is not surprising given the secrecy surrounding grand jury proceedings and the general policy of federal prosecutors to refrain from public statements on ongoing investigations.
The SDNY case itself is sealed. All we know about it is that it exists—or existed, and has a case number (1:24-mc-26). Enthusiasts of PACER (the online system that allows the public to view federal cases) cannot even see the docket, making it difficult to impossible to verify the status of the investigation from that angle. The lack of transparency further complicates the competing narratives from McMahon’s side and Janel Grant’s team about whether the case is truly closed or still active in some capacity.
The morning after POST Wrestling reported on the various details revealed in the opinion from the appeals court, The New York Post reported on similar matters. The outlet called it an exclusive, even though the information in it was not much different from my report for POST Wrestling. The main difference was that it made McMahon’s attorney’s statement the headline: “Feds drop criminal probe into whether WWE boss Vince McMahon covered up sexual misconduct allegations, his lawyer says”.
For McMahon, The New York Post’s headline is undoubtedly a PR victory. However, whether it reflects the actual legal reality is still unverified beyond the famous pro wrestling promoter’s attorneys. The New York Post also noted the February 7 ruling refers to McMahon as “the subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation concerning whether, as CEO, he engaged in a criminal scheme to circumvent the company’s internal accounting controls and mislead company auditors in order to conceal multiple allegations of sexual misconduct raised against him by two former company employees.”
To try to get clarity on the matter, I contacted McMahon’s representatives on Thursday, including Allen, to ask whether they have written documentation from SDNY confirming that the investigation has been dropped or if their statement is based on another form of communication with prosecutors. As of this writing, they haven’t responded.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.