Audio was released of TKO CEO Ari Emmanuel offering to help Vince McMahon with his legal issues. Emmanuel sent two voice memos to McMahon in September 2022, when McMahon had publicly retired from WWE. He would force his way back into the company in January 2023 to help arrange a sale of WWE.
POST Wrestling had previously posted transcripts, but just obtained the three recordings after Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, the judge presiding over the WWE Shareholders lawsuit ruled the recordings should be made public. In one recording from September 16, Emmanuel tells McMahon that “everyone at the DOJ is former Latham lawyers, so on that side, will be helpful. SEC, of course, is SEC. But that’s just the 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.”
According to Cornell Law School, indemnification “means compensating a person for damages or losses they have incurred or will incur related to a specified accident, incident, or event.”
NEW: Audio released of Ari Emanuel’s 2022 offer of legal help to Vince McMahon amid federal investigations: “There’s ways around this”
Full article & audio of the 3 voice memos:https://t.co/wwbXksMP28 pic.twitter.com/bHozW6Gu9E
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) July 1, 2026
Three days later, Emmanuel told McMahon that he wanted to get together “to talk through the issues because I think whether it be the DOJ or anything, there’s ways around this to figure this out.”
Ari Emanuel in another voice message on Sept 19, 2022, to Vince McMahon:
“I think whether it be the DOJ or anything, there’s ways around this to figure this out.”https://t.co/wwbXksMP28 pic.twitter.com/ToqhWWif1D
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) July 1, 2026
A third voice memo that was released from McMahon to Jeff Sine, a banking adviser following a meeting with Emmanuel and others. McMahon said he thought it was “the best thing to do is to go forward with the deal with Ari. It solves a lot of problems.” That call took place in December 2022. WWE would sell to Emmanuel and Endeavor in April 2023 and WWE and UFC would merge to become TKO Holdings.
After a December 2022 dinner meeting with McMahon family members and Endeavor top executives, Vince told banking adviser Jeff Sine that he’s “pretty sure” wants to make a deal with Endeavor. It’s faster and it “solves a lot of problems.” https://t.co/wwbXksMP28 pic.twitter.com/yq8wwKlH3O
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) July 1, 2026
In the eleventh hour, the shareholders lawsuit was settled . Based on the evidence that was lost, Laster presumed that McMahon was imdenified by Emmanuel. McMahon’s team had not responded to POST Wrestling when asked to clarify if imdenification took place.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit POST Wrestling and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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