A chorus of calls is growing for sports agent and marketing professional Casey Wasserman to step down from not only his role as chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also his own company, after the latest trove of late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s emails revealed that he had a cozy and flirtatious relationship with his now-imprisoned henchwoman, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Wasserman has been a driving force in the business of sports for decades through his firm, Wasserman Media Group, which was founded in 2002 and, through a series of acquisitions, has grown over the past 24 years to be a key player in sports marketing. The firm has also expanded into other areas, including music. Now one of his firm’s artists has released a series of demands following the news about his prior ealings with Epstein and Maxwell.
In an Instagram post, Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino sounded off on the affair, demanding the removal of her and Best Coast’s name from the Wasserman Group website; for Wasserman to step down from his job at the firm; and for Wasserman Group to change its name to erase the imprint of its founder.
“Staying quiet isn’t something I can do in good conscience — especially in a moment when men in power are so often protected, excused, or allowed to move on without consequence. Pretending this isn’t a big deal is not an option for me,” Cosentino wrote to her fans.
Cosentino is the first artist to comment on Wasserman’s Epstein connection since the scandal broke; other Wasserman Group-signed music acts, such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, SZA and Chappell Roan, have remained quiet.
Meanwhile, the connection to the ongoing Epstein story is threatening Wasserman’s position at the helm of the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which is forecast to generate somewhere between $13.6 billion and $17.6 billion in added gross domestic product for the region and create tens of thousands of new jobs. After being selected in 2015 by the city of Los Angeles, Wasserman has led the organizing committee for the 2028 Games since its inception in 2017.
The industry power player was on track to take the lead in delivering a spectacular Summer Olympics in three years — until this week, when the Department of Justice, as part of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, released the latest trove of communications and correspondence collected from Epstein’s email servers. Revealed in this batch are the cozy and sexually-tinged messages between him and Maxwell, who was Epstein’s right-hand woman and ex-girlfriend, who played a major role in his trafficking and sexual assault of underage girls for decades; she is now serving 20 years in prison after being found guilty of sex trafficking conspiracy and other related charges.
In the emails, which are from decades ago, Wasserman tells Maxwell, “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” and in an April 2003 email to Wasserman, Maxwell offers to give him a massage that can “drive a man wild.”
“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell [from] long before her horrific crimes came to light…I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them,” Wassrman said in a statement.
As of Friday, three Los Angeles city councilmembers, two county supervisors, and a state senator are among those now urging Wasserman to resign.
“Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately,” L.A. City councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said. “Anything less is a distraction and undermines efforts to make sure the Games truly reflect the values of a city that is for everyone.”
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