Senatoriable Linda McMahon is now under fire for her alleged interference on a steroid investigation on professional wrestlers and their company doctor in 1989. The headlines last week was centered on the inter office memorandum which was issued by Linda McMahon to a company employee in relation to the ongoing investigation of the federal authorities. Her rival in the Republican nomination used this issue to question the credibility of the aspiring senator.

Rob Simmons, who already served 3 terms in the congress as representative, is her closest rival in the nomination. The veteran representative criticized McMahon for her action in the investigation and even asked the former WWE chief executive to explain her memo. “Mrs. McMahon is building her Senate candidacy entirely on her business experience at the WWE. She needs to be held accountable for that very troubling record,” Simmons said during a press conference held last week at the State Capitol.

The memo of Linda McMahon, which was published in a major daily, details her orders to a company employee directing him to inform Dr Zahorian that he is under investigation. The ctmirror.org quoted some of the contents of the memo. “Although you and I discussed before about continuing to have Zahorian at our events as the doctor on call, I think that is now not a good idea,” Mcmahon wrote in the memo. Dr Zahorian was the WWF doctor at that time and was investigated for illegal prescriptions of anabolic steroids to professional wrestlers. “Vince agreed, and would like for you to call Zahorian to tell him not to come to any more of our events and to also clue him in on any action that the Justice Department is thinking of taking,” she wrote.

The issue becomes complicated when a former prosecutor was pinpointed as the source of information on the steroid probe. A spokesperson from the WWE also confirms this report. However, this was already denied by former prosecutor James J. West who handled the case.

The steroid investigation, which led to the conviction of Dr Zahorian, happened more than a decade already. There are some people who believe that the issue is politically motivated, that is to ruin the credibility of the aspiring senator. Linda McMahon is currently leading in poll surveys against Rob Simmons. Edward Patru, McMahon’s communication director told the media that debates should be focused on compelling issues. “Linda McMahon believes that what voters are entitled to and what they deserve is a substantive debate on issues, issues that impact them every day, not 17-year-old court cases, not 21-year-old memos,” Patru said.

The spokesperson insinuated that Simmons’ use of the previous steroid case is due to his poor ratings. “I’ll suggest to you the reason why Rob Simmons has hemorrhaged 37 points in the polls and lost his lead is because he has no ideas. He’s more focused on talking about wrestling and running smear campaigns than he is on putting forward any ideas on how we get people back to work and turn this economy around,” the spokesperson added.

McMahon have not directly addressed the issue. When asked by the media about the memo, she could not explain the reason why she made the instruction related to the investigation. She refused to discuss the details but said that the issue was already brought in court. She also said that the WWE has continuously evolving especially in its implementation of the health and wellness policy.

But for Simmons, failure to address the issue will affect the credibility of the candidate. “Mrs. McMahon claims she does not recall any of the details of these events. That is not credible. It reflects a pattern of false and misleading statements, a refusal to answer questions and selective amnesia,” he said. He emphasized that character is very important for a public servant. “I believe, and I’ve always believed that public office is a public trust,” Simmons added.

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