Yesterday (Feb. 11), a federal appeals court ruling came down that related to the hush money scandal which twice forced Vince McMahon to resign from WWE. That led to questions about whether a criminal probe of McMahon by the United States Department of Justice — for improperly handling the hush money payments and/or any illegal activity or behavior they were supposed to keep under wraps — was still ongoing.

It is not, at least not according to McMahon attorney Robert W. Allen. Allen issued the following statement to the New York Post:

“This is simply the result of an appeal of a procedural matter that was argued five months ago. We have been in consistent communication with the government since that time and understand, with no ambiguity, that the investigation has definitively concluded and will not result in charges.”

There’s been rampant speculation that the election of McMahon confidant and business partner Donald Trump as U.S. President for a second time would result in the end of any federal case against McMahon. While there’s obviously not going to be any official communication indicating that, if Allen’s statement is accurate, we’ve arrived at that end result just the same.

Ann Callis, lead attorney for one of the hush money recipients, Janel Grant, whose civil suit alleging 𝑠e𝑥ual abuse and trafficking is central to McMahon’s legal issues, had indicated that the criminal probe for accusations made in their suit was ongoing after a six-month pause in her case — ordered to allow federal investigators to pursue their own case against McMahon — was lifted. She reiterated that last month when McMahon’s settlement with the SEC was announced.

Allen’s statement was in reference to yesterday’s 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals ruling upholding a lower court’s finding that an unnamed former McMahon lawyer wrongfully withheld 208 pages of documents requested by the DoJ as part of their investigation into McMahon. The lawyer had claimed he could not turn them over due to attorney/client privilege, but the court determined that didn’t apply due to the “crime or fraud” exception. The appeals court judges wrote that because McMahon and his legal team “circumvented WWE’s internal controls” to hide the non-disclosure agreements and payments to Grant and others — moves which required WWE to restate past financial results when the NDAs became public knowledge — they were pertinent to a grand jury.

Because the settlement agreements resolving the Victims’ claims were ‘structured and negotiated … to keep them hidden from (the Company),’ the district court found that ‘all communications about the claims and settlement agreements were made in furtherance of the criminal scheme to keep (the Company) and its auditors unaware of the allegations.’

Barring an appeal to the Supreme Court, McMahon’s former attorney will now have to turn over the documents. If Vince’s current lawyer is correct, however, they may not have a grand jury to give them to.