A lawsuit accusing former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, Trump’s president-elect Choose for the Secretary of Educationof turning a blind eye to child sexual abuse by a former wrestling company announcer has been put on hold, according to court documents filed this week in U.S. District Court in Maryland.
The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of five unnamed men, targets the McMahons and WWE under a new change to Maryland law that removes the state’s statute of limitations for claims child sexual abuse. Vince McMahon left the company in January following allegations of sexual misconduct. Linda McMahon left the company in 2009 to run for a US Senate seat in Connecticut.
The suit alleges that Melvin Phillips for years recruited, and then assaulted, “ring boys” as young as 13. A regular fixture in WWE, Phillips assaulted boys in arena facilities such as locker rooms and locker rooms, as well as hotels, according to the lawsuit. .
Phillips died in 2012.
A lawyer for Linda McMahon he told CBS News in late November that the candidate for the Council of Ministers “would defend himself vigorously against this baseless demand and, no doubt, would eventually succeed.”
The motion filed by his attorney says that because the incidents happened in the 1980s and were filed under the recent change in the law, the case could not move forward until the question of whether the law was constitutional was resolved.
Court documents say the case was dismissed pending a decision by the Maryland Supreme Court on consolidated appeals of the constitutionality of the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023.
The parties were required to file a status report every 60 days from the date of the order and within 15 days of any opinion issued by the Maryland Supreme Court in the consolidated appeal, according to court documents.
Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon co-founded the WWE and ran it for decades. the couple they have been friends with Trump for more than 20 years and are among its most prolific donors.
Linda McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, resign in 2019 to help with his 2020 re-election campaign. She is currently the co-chair of Trump’s transition team.
contributed to this report.