Revelations in the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files of LA28 Olympics boss Casey Wasserman‘s much closer than previously acknowledged relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell are much ado about nothing, according to International Olympic Committee leaders.
Asked Sunday in the lead-up to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games about the racy correspondence between the then-married Wasserman and now convicted sex trafficker Maxwell decades ago and whether they could be “damaging to the preparations for the Olympics” in Los Angeles two years from now, IOC president Kirsty Coventry waved off the whole thing.
“We didn’t discuss it yesterday and I believe Mr. Wasserman has put out his statement and we now have nothing further to add,” the ex-Olympic swimmer and Zimbabwean cabinet minister said Sunday, clearly trying to bring the matter to heel.
Later, at the same openly deferential press conference, Coventry lamented how “sad” it was that issues like Wasserman’s links to deceased pedophile and financier Epstein’s circle were “distracting from these Games.” Asked for further clarification, a IOC spokesperson sent Deadline a link to a clip from the press conference.
After the massive and messy Epstein document dump by the Department of Justice last week brought to light Wasserman’s 2003 email queries to Maxwell like asking “what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” and getting naked at Malibu beaches, the exec put out a circumspect statement.
“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Wasserman said Saturday. At the time of the back-and-forth with the daughter of disgraced and deceased media baron Robert Maxwell, Wasserman was married and his then-wife was pregnant with their first child.
“I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Wasserman said in his statement. “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.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Sky
Unlike a number of high-profile men, Wasserman has never been alleged to be involved with anything around Epstein’s trafficking and sexual abuse of minors. Still, the depth of the association with Epstein’s right-hand lady and apparent procurer has left some uneasy — especially when it comes to a high-profile event like a Summer Olympic Games taking place in their backyard two years from now.
In that vein, Deadline has learned there had been discussions this past weekend among several prominent Angelenos of approaching Wasserman. The rough plan was that an emissary would suggest to the sports marketing and talent management company executive that he “step back … for a bit.” Emphasizing both the optics and a sense of moral outrage, one well-positioned source detailed the POV: “He should resign, he’s going to become the story of the Games here if this isn’t nipped in the bud.”
However, with Wasserman in Italy for the February 6 start of the XXV Winter Olympic Games, it seems there haven’t been any discussions on the future of Lew Wasserman’s grandson with the man himself.
An LA28 board member said he hadn’t “heard” about anyone wanting to meet with Wasserman on the topic of him moving aside, even for a while. Another person close to the LA28 board (which includes Jessica Alba, former GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Jeffery Katzenberg and Jeanie Buss among its members) stated that “if anyone is trying to have that conversation with Casey, they haven’t had it yet, and I doubt they will.”
Los Angeles Olympics officials did not respond to Deadline’s request for more information about whether Wasserman gave a presentation he was scheduled to deliver to IOC officials today in Italy about LA28. Taking the lead on returning the Olympics to L.A. for the first time since 1984, Wasserman was widely seen as pulling off a coup in 2017 as the IOC made the unprecedented decision to simultaneously bestow the 2024 Olympics on Paris and the 2028 Games on the City of Angels.
Spread over sites across Italy and broadcast on NBC and other Comcast-owned platforms, the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics run February 6-26.