Linda McMahon, a former top executive at World Wrestling Entertainment and President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Education Department, sat for a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday and, rather predictably, was grilled by Democratic panel members on an assortment of issues.

At one point during the hearing, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) pressed McMahon on a lawsuit in which she is a named defendant that raises decades-old allegations of sexual abuse of minors in the WWE, according to The Hill.

The Democratic senator sought to tie the anonymous allegations, which assert that McMahon knew about but did nothing to stop a WWE employee's sexual abuse of young boys, to the current nomination by openly wondering how student victims of sexual assault and harassment could trust McMahon to protect and defend them.

McMahon named as defendant in WWE lawsuit

In October 2024, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of five unnamed alleged victims who claimed to have been sexually abused by the late WWE announcer and ring crew chief Melvin Phillips Jr while they worked as adolescent and teen "Ring Boys," who helped set up and take down the ring and run other errands, between the late 1970s and early 1990s.

The suit names Linda McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, as defendants along with the parent company of the WWE, TKO Group Holdings, Inc., and alleges that all were fully aware of Phillips' "peculiar and unnatural interest" in and alleged sexual abuse of the Ring Boys over the years but did little or nothing to address it.

Phillips, who passed away in 2012, is unable to defend himself from the accusations, but both of the McMahons have flatly denied any truth to the anonymous claims of their supposed knowledge and inaction related to the alleged problem.

Tying old allegations to the nomination

During Thursday's Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Baldwin began her time with nominee McMahon by raising a series of seemingly innocuous questions about instances of sexual assault or harassment involving students that occur on or off campus.

About two-thirds of the way through the senator's allotted time, the purpose of those set-up queries became clear as Baldwin brought up the pending WWE lawsuit that names McMahon as a defendant and tied it to her potential role as secretary of the Education Department.

"If confirmed, you will be responsible with overseeing the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, charged with ensuring equal access to education through vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws," Baldwin stated and, seemingly accepting the allegations as true, added, "I am so concerned about whether sexual assault survivors on campus can trust you to support them."

"They certainly can trust me to support them," McMahon responded without hesitation.

The nominee went on to note how she has three grandchildren in college right now, insisted she had a "deep commitment of understanding" to how they would feel if they were accused of or a victim of sexual crimes, and added, "You have my absolute commitment that I will uphold and protect those investigations to make sure those students are treated fairly on both sides."

McMahons deny allegations in lawsuit

In November 2024, after McMahon was named as President Trump's pick to lead the Education Department, her attorney made it clear that her client denied the allegations in the lawsuit and intended to fight back against them, and told the media, "This civil lawsuit based upon 30-plus-year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon."

Likewise, an attorney for Vince McMahon told USA Today in October that the lawsuit was full of "false claims" related to decades-old reporting from longtime New York Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick, and said, "The negligence claims against Mr. McMahon that were asserted today rely on these same absurd, defamatory, and utterly meritless statements by Mr. Mushnick. We will vigorously defend Mr. McMahon and are confident the court will find that these claims are untrue and unfounded.

Linda McMahon, who stepped away from the WWE to serve as the Small Business Administrator during President Trump's first term, was picked as a leader for Trump's transition team before the election and was widely expected to be nominated for another role in his second term, and there are some suspicions that that lawsuit naming her as a defendant against decades-old anonymous allegations is little more than politically motivated "lawfare."