A lawsuit filed in October accused former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, of turning a blind eye to child sexual abuse by a former ringside announcer at the wrestling company.
The suit claims McMahon, her husband Vince and others at the WWE were aware of misconduct by Melvin Phillips — and negligent in failing to prevent it. The lawsuit alleges Phillips for years hired — and later assaulted — “ring boys” as young as 13.
Phillips died in 2012, and the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of five unnamed men, targets the McMahons and the WWE under a new change in Maryland law that eliminates the state’s statute of limitations for claims of child sex abuse.
Phillips was a fixture in the WWE. The plaintiffs claim Phillips assaulted boys in arena facilities, such as dressing and locker rooms, as well as hotels.
An attorney for Linda McMahon said the Cabinet nominee “will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.”
“This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” said the attorney, Laura Brevetti. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation.”
The lawsuit acknowledges that the FBI investigated in 1993. No charges were filed.
The lawsuit cites a 1992 New York Post report, and later a sworn deposition by the report, saying Vince McMahon acknowledged at one point firing Phillips because of his “relationship with kids seemed peculiar, and unnatural,” but weeks later Vince and Linda McMahon decided to rehire him.
Vince McMahon resigned in January from WWE’s parent company after a former employee claimed in a separate lawsuit that he forced her into a sexual relationship and offered sex with her to an unnamed WWE performer.
In a statement to CBS News the day of his resignation, Vince McMahon said he left “out of respect for the WWE,” but called that lawsuit, “replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
An attorney for Vince McMahon, and spokespeople for the incoming Trump administration and the WWE did not immediately return requests for comment.
Linda McMahon served in the first Trump administration as administrator of the Small Business Administration. Trump announced on Tuesday that she will be his nominee for Education Secretary. McMahon spent just more than a year as a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education, in 2009 and 2010.