A recent lawsuit alleges that Linda McMahon, whom President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the Department of Education, knowingly allowed the sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employee as early as the 1980s — allegations that she denies them.

McMahon is the former CEO of WWE, which she co-founded with her husband Vince. As head of WWE, Linda McMahon oversaw its transformation from a wrestling entertainment company into a publicly traded media empire. She resigned in 2009 to run for Senate, but lost in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012.

As McMahon — who co-chairs Trump’s transition team — competes to be confirmed as Secretary of Education, a recent lawsuit is raising questions about her concern for the safety of children at WWE.

The lawsuit alleges that McMahon, her husband, WWE and TKO Group Holdings, the league’s parent company, knowingly allowed employee Melvin Phillips Jr. to use his position as a frontline announcer to sexually exploit children.

The filing alleges that Phillips would recruit children to work as “Ring Boys,” helping him set up and take down wrestling rings at WWE events. However, the job was a pretense for sexually exploiting children, which Phillips would even do in front of wrestlers and locker room executives, the lawsuit alleges. He also often filmed himself sexually abusing himself, according to the filing.

The lawsuit was filed in October in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five John Does who say they were between the ages of 13 and 15 when Phillips met and recruited them to work as “Ring Boys.” They each say they suffered mental and emotional abuse as a result of the alleged abuse.

“Phillips lured and manipulated the boys with promises of meeting famous wrestlers and attending highly popular wrestling shows, experiences that were otherwise unattainable for these children,” the lawsuit alleges. “(The McMahons, WWE and TKO Holdings) allowed Phillips and others to engage in and promote WWE’s pervasive culture of sexual abuse.”

The lawsuit claims the McMahons were negligent as employers and failed to protect the plaintiffs, who are seeking more than $30,000 in damages.

Phillips worked for WWE in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s as a “prominent announcer and crew chief”. He died in 2012.

Both Linda and Vince McMahon were aware of Phillips’ abuse, the lawsuit alleges. Vince McMahon admitted that he and Linda had been aware since the early 1980s that Phillips had a “special and unnatural interest” in young boys, according to the filing.

Laura Brevetti, an attorney for Linda McMahon, called the allegations false.

“This civil lawsuit based on allegations that are over thirty years old is full of lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations about Linda McMahon,” Brevetti said. “Miss. McMahon will vigorously defend himself against this baseless lawsuit and will undoubtedly succeed in the end.”

Brevetti also told CNN that Linda and Vince McMahon “are separated” and have been “separated for some time.” Jessica Rosenberg, an attorney for Vince McMahon, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment for this story. Rosenberg said in an earlier statement that the allegations in the lawsuit are false.

WWE did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Decades of accusations

Phillips’ alleged abuse at WWE was reported by the New York Post as early as 1992.

“It is well known within WWE — among ring crew, wrestlers and executives — that Phillips surrounded himself with a group of underage Ring Boys, including when he traveled across state lines and stayed in hotel rooms with the children,” the lawsuit says . claim.

The McMahons fired Phillips in 1988 after allegations of child sexual exploitation continued to surface, according to the lawsuit. They “rehired him six weeks later on the condition that he ‘stay away from children,'” but he continued to sexually exploit young boys with the McMahons’ knowledge, the lawsuit alleges.

“After decades of suffering in silence from childhood trauma, these survivors are now coming forward to hold the defendants accountable for their conduct, which enabled Philips’ systemic and pervasive abuse,” the suit claims.

No one was criminally charged.

In 2023, the Maryland Child Victims Act, which repeals the statute of limitations in certain civil lawsuits for child sexual abuse, became law. The legislation recognizes that “survivors of childhood sexual abuse often wait years before disclosing the abuse to others because of the psychological and emotional trauma,” said Greg Gutzler, a partner at DiCello Levitt, which represents the plaintiffs along with Murphy, Falcon & Murphy . .

Linda McMahon served in Trump’s first cabinet as administrator of the Small Business Administration before stepping down in 2019 to chair a pro-Trump super PAC. She is also co-founder and chairman of the board of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.

Allegations of sex trafficking and abuse have dogged Vince McMahon for some time. In 2023, Vince McMahon paid one million dollars LOCATION to a former employee who accused him of rape and resigned this year as executive chairman of TK Holdings following allegations of sexual assault and trafficking. He denied the allegations.

Most recently, Vince McMahon is the subject of a federal criminal investigation and a separate lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut. That process was put on hold this summer until early December. A criminal investigation surrounding McMahon also exists in New York, though it poses no legal risk to Linda McMahon, who left WWE more than a decade ago, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. An attorney for Vince McMahon declined to comment on the criminal investigation.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com