Janel Grant has publicly denied having any involvement in the anonymous emails that sparked WWE’s investigation into former chairman Vince McMahon. In her most detailed response yet, Grant said she neither wrote the emails nor helped anyone send them.
The anonymous emails were sent to WWE’s Board of Directors in 2022 and included allegations involving McMahon and former WWE executive John Laurinaitis. They led to an internal investigation that The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2022, becoming one of the biggest controversies in WWE history.
Now, Grant says she had nothing to do with those messages.
Janel Grant says the emails were a “storyline,” not allegations
In a statement posted on Instagram, Grant addressed the three emails for the first time and denied sending them herself. She wrote,
“The Anonymous Emails
Reading these for the first time took a sledgehammer to my mental health. I feel like a Taylor Swift lyric and wonder if someone caged me just to call me crazy. I’m not wired to understand why someone would write them. But I am trained to notice the use of hair splitters and spin.”
The first email, dated March 30, 2022, claimed to have been written by one of Grant’s friends. It included allegations involving McMahon, Laurinaitis, and former WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt. It also claimed that Grant had been homeless and struggled with prescription drug addiction before joining WWE.
Grant pushed back against those claims.
“About Anonymous Email 1
What happened before 2019:
While caring for my parents – two sets of illness, medical debt, hospitalizations – they declared bankruptcy and we lost our family home. Life was such a disaster that Hurricane Sandy dropped a tree on the house that we were in the process of losing,” she wrote.
Grant said the description of her life before 2019 was not true.
“What never happened: No living on the street. No addictions to “percs.” No rehab. There is no person who knew me in life pre-dating 2019 who could write this,” she wrote.
Grant suggested that some details may have been twisted from conversations she had while working at WWE.
“The spin: A friend? I see a trick to steer public perception. Homeless? I shared my background at work. Rehab? I shared my experience with grief counseling at work. Addiction? I shared that quitting nicotine lozenges wasn’t fun at work. A threat to expose info? It’s a highly reactive environment with security vendors in place. The rest of the email? It repackages years of time and illogical events involving a lot of people who have eyeballs into a logic sounding storyline with only a few people.
This email doesn’t contain allegations. This email is a storyline,” she wrote.
She also admitted she still has no idea who sent the emails. Moreover, she also referenced public records showing that $20.098 million in legal expenses tied to the special committee investigation had later been reimbursed.
“Who sent this? I don’t know. But public documents show a reimbursement of $20,098,000 in legal costs related to a special committee’s investigation on 3/19/23,” Grant added.
The second and third emails, sent on April 11 and April 14, 2022, contained additional allegations involving Grant and mentioned the possibility of explicit photos and communications. Those claims disturbed her the most.
“About Anonymous Emails 2 and 3
I’m pretty sick over whether this is implying a revenge porn situation and whether it extends to Deadspin. A media company. I’m sick over whether this is implying I was being filmed and didn’t know it. I’m sick over whatever it is that I don’t know,” Grant wrote.
While the anonymous emails played a key role in launching the investigation into Vince McMahon, Janel Grant’s new statement adds another chapter to a case.
Read more: Vince McMahon Avoids Trial That Could Have Exposed Sensitive Documents
