Disclaimer: Brandon Thurston works directly with POST Wrestling and co-hosts a weekly show with John Pollock
Judge Travis Laster has ruled in favor of a journalist challenging redacted items in the ongoing WWE shareholder lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which is set to go to trial in the Delaware Chancery Court on June 8, alleges that Vince McMahon led an unfair transaction to secure a role in the soon-to-be-formed TKO Group Holdings. The defendants in the case are McMahon, Paul Levesque, Nick Khan, George Barrios, and Michelle Wilson.
POST Wrestling & Wrestlenomics reporter Brandon Thurston challenged the continued confidential treatment of various filings, including a voicemail from Ari Emanuel sent to Vince McMahon before the merger.
The defendants attempted to block information on a) personally identifiable information, including phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses, b) deposition questions regarding reporting by the Wall Street Journal and its sources regarding the Vince McMahon sexual misconduct claims, and c) the native audio files (the Emanuel voicemail).
Thurston has waived the right for the defendants to disclose any personal information and has challenged the second and third categories.
The public filing by Judge Laster outlines the ability for parties to keep information of “low interest to the public” confidential, of which disclosure would “impose significant costs to the litigant,” but those parties bear the burden of persuading the court to maintain confidential treatment. Laster rules that the defendants did not meet that burden in these instances.
The defendants asked for confidentiality of “less than 60 lines of deposition testimony from a 358-page transcript” (believed to be from the deposition of former WWE director Michelle McKenna), but the defendants failed to identify the specific lines at issue and cannot argue for confidentiality without identifying what they are seeking to keep confidential. Laster assumed it was the McKenna deposition regarding “a leak to the Wall Street Journal” and the party must do more than argue that the information “could have unfavorable or reputational consequences, such as weakened negotiating position or public embarrassment”.
The argument that the disclosure could create “damages to professional relationships within and outside of WWE…harm to the individuals identified” and would “erode confidence among stakeholders” was not considered a sufficient argument by Laster, and the defendants were unable to argue that the harm outweighed the public interest.
On Thursday’s Pollock & Thurston, Brandon stated, “I argued that it is relevant information. Not necessarily because I’m trying to unveil who the Wall Street Journal sources are, but because this is relevant information about, perhaps, the factional atmosphere in the board and who certain board members suspected were giving information to the press. I even messaged (Wall Street Journal reporter) Joe Palazzolo before filing that to make sure he was comfortable, and he said, ‘Yes, go for it.”
Regarding the audio file, the defendants stated that releasing Emanuel’s audio message was unnecessary because the “substantive content of the voice notes is already on the record” as the text of the voicemail has been disclosed:
“I spoke to my lawyer from Latham. Just FYI. Everybody at the DOJ is former Latham lawyers so on that side will be helpful. SEC of course is SEC, but that’s just a penalty. As it relates to everything else, yes we can indemnify you and we will. If it’s criminal of course you can’t stop criminal, but this is not criminal. Call me when you get a chance.”
Laster struck this down as insufficient to maintain confidentiality. They also argued that the file-sharing service didn’t support audio files, and while Laster acknowledged that fact, it wasn’t an impediment to sharing the file, which can be submitted in electronic form.
Earlier this week, Laster issued a 41-page opinion imposing sanctions on defendants Vince McMahon and Nick Khan for spoliation of confidential information as it pertains to the case.
