A federal appeals court has ruled that a former lawyer for pro-wrestling impresario Vince McMahon was wrong to withhold some documents from a federal grand jury.
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A former lawyer for pro-wrestling impresario Vince McMahon was wrong to withhold some documents from a federal grand jury as it investigated how the former WWE boss handled multimillion-dollar settlement agreements with two female employees who accused him of sexual abuse, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court ruling that said the documents were not protected by attorney-client privilege because of an exception for “crime or fraud.”
The appeals court said the lower court judge found prosecutors had reasonable grounds to believe that McMahon and his lawyer illegally “circumvented” the WWE’s internal controls and created false records when they concealed the employees’ claims and settlement agreements from the company, and that they made false and misleading statements to the company’s auditors — even though McMahon paid the settlements with funds that did not come from the company.
The appellate panel said that while McMahon’s lawyer submitted many materials in response to a grand jury subpoena, they also submitted a log of 208 documents that were being withheld under assertions of attorney-client privilege.