first reported the news<\/a>.<\/p>\nWasserman previously said he \u201cdeeply regrets\u201d trading emails with Maxwell in 2003. The correspondence was published by the Justice Department in January as part of a cache of new files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell\u2019s ex-boyfriend.<\/p>\n
In a previous statement, Wasserman said the correspondence \u201ctook place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.\u201d Wasserman added that he did not have a \u201cpersonal or business relationship\u201d with Epstein.<\/p>\n
Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of federal sex trafficking charges. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 on a child prostitution charge, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
Wasserman has not been accused of wrongdoing or criminally charged in relation to the Maxwell or Epstein cases.<\/p>\n
In the emails released by the Justice Department, Wasserman expresses interest in seeing Maxwell wear a \u201ctight leather outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of you all the time,\u201d Wasserman wrote to Maxwell in March 2003.<\/p>\n
The furor over the executive\u2019s email exchanges led some Wasserman clients to head for the exits this week.<\/p>\n
Grammy-winning artist Chappell Roan announced Monday she was cutting ties with Wasserman\u2019s talent agency. Abby Wambach, the retired U.S. women\u2019s soccer star, followed suit Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Indie musicians also criticized Wasserman. Bethany Cosentino, the frontwoman of the Los Angeles rock group Best Coast, wrote on Instagram that she \u201cdid not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grandson of legendary Hollywood power broker Lew Wasserman, the 51-year-old entertainment executive is also the chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee. This week, the committee\u2019s board announced it was standing by Wasserman.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,\u201d LA28\u2019s executive committee of the board said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found Mr. Wasserman\u2019s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,\u201d the board said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-three years ago, before Mr. Wasserman or the public knew of Epstein and Maxwell\u2019s deplorable crimes, Mr. Wasserman and his then-wife flew on a humanitarian mission to Africa on Epstein\u2019s plane at the invitation of the Clinton Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was his single interaction with Epstein,\u201d the board added. \u201cShortly after, he traded the publicly-known emails with Maxwell.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the memo to agency staff, Wasserman said Mike Watts would \u201cassume day-to-day control of the business while I devote my full attention\u201d to the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hollywood mogul Casey Wasserman on Friday informed staff members at his talent agency that he is putting the company up for sale, a move that comes as he faces growing scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In a memo to staff obtained by NBC News, Wasserman wrote that he believed he <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}