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WWE News
WWE News: More details on the formal complaint filed against WWE and Linda McMahon for alleged illegal activity Nov 2, 2009 - 12:01:18 PM
The Connecticut Democratic Party's formal complaint filed against WWE and former WWE CEO Linda McMahon alleges that WWE "provided a service" for McMahon by having videos removed from YouTube. The Federal Election Campaign Act includes a clause in the rules and regulations specifying that corporations cannot provide a service that benefits a candidate.
The rules and regulations reads: "It is unlawful for any national bank, or any corporation organized by authority of any law of Congress, to make a contribution or expenditure in connection with any election to any political office." The regulations then define contribution or expenditure as "any direct or indirect payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money, or any services."
WWE's publicly-stated defense is that no service was provided. WWE executives claimed two weeks ago they were protecting intellectual property by having the videos removed once they were brought to WWE's attention.
The formal complaint filed by Connecticut Democrats alleges that "a search of YouTube using the phrase 'WWE' continues to produce almost 500,000 results as of the date of this complaint. Thus, it appears that WWE only ordered YouTube to remove the videos that may be damaging to Ms. McMahon's campaign."
The Conn. Dems including that item in the formal complaint may discredit the entire complaint due to the lack of specifics. Anyone with a computer and Internet access can type in "WWE" on YouTube and find the following search results: “wwe” results 1 - 20 of about 500,000. Many of the videos in the 500,000 search results include wrestling fans talking about wrestling, non-WWE videos, video game clips, and unrelated clips such as Halloween costume videos.
Caldwell's Analysis: Based on how WWE's legal team has historically handled legal matters, I would expect WWE to seize on the "500,000 search results item" to discredit the formal complaint. WWE could probably find 300,000 results on YouTube that do not include WWE's intellectual property. A spokesman for McMahon tossed out "baseless" earlier today. It appears he was responding to the "it took two seconds to look this up research item" to throw a blanket denial against the entire complaint. My view on this is that the legal strategy of discrediting the party filing the complaint would be an easier defense that actually defending WWE and Linda McMahon's campaign. McMahon's folks still have to manage the perception of the campaign, though. WWE and McMahon could easily discredit this complaint, but it could still affect how potential voters view her campaign. That might be all the Democratic Party is looking for.
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