Casey Wasserman will remain as the chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics amid calls for his resignation due to his Jeffrey Epstein ties.
The LA28 executive committee of the board — which was hand-picked by Wasserman and includes Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jeanie Buss, Kevin McCarthy and Jessica Alba — held an emergency meeting to discuss Wasserman’s recently revealed relationship with the convicted sex trafficker. The committee, a smaller subset of the 35-person Olympics board, conducted a review with the help of law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP and put out a statement on Wednesday asserting that “Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games.”
Wasserman, the founder and CEO of the eponymous Hollywood agency, is under fire after flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced in the latest batch of Epstein files released by the Justice Department. Wasserman’s correspondence with Maxwell dates back to 2003, before she was convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the Executive Committee of the Board said in its statement. “Twenty-three years ago, before Mr. Wasserman or the public knew of Epstein and Maxwell’s deplorable crimes, Mr. Wasserman and his then-wife flew on a humanitarian mission to Africa on Epstein’s plane at the invitation of the Clinton Foundation. This was his single interaction with Epstein. Shortly after, he traded the publicly-known emails with Maxwell.”
The statement concludes: “The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past 10 years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games.”
Wasserman has faced pressure from talent signed to his agency, with artists like Chappell Roan and athletes like Abby Wambach exiting the company and calling for him to resign. Dozens more clients have severed ties with the agency over Wasserman’s Epstein controversy.