– stock.adobe.com)
The apparent smooth sailing for Linda McMahon to be confirmed as the Secretary of Education is hitting a not surprising roadblock in the form of the “ring boys” lawsuit.
The suit, filed in a Maryland court in October, alleges that Linda McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, allowed a ring announcer for their wrestling promotion, then known as WWF, now known as WWE, to use his position to prey sexually on young boys.
Mel Phillips managed the ring crew for the WWF in the 1980s, and recruited teens to help with the job of setting up the wrestling rings at live events throughout the northeast.
New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick wrote a column in 1992 alleging that Vince McMahon had told him he fired Phillips in 1988 because of his “peculiar and unnatural” relationship with the teens on his watch in the ring crew, then rehired him a few weeks later with the understanding that Phillips would “steer clear from kids.”
The suit, filed on behalf of five of Phillips’ victims, alleges that the McMahons “allowed Phillips and others to engage in, and foster, the WWE’s rampant culture of sexual abuse.”
An attorney for Linda McMahon said she “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 McMahon’s attorney, Laura Brevetti. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation.”
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Chris Graham
