Photo Credit: Digital Music News
Days after calling it quits with his own company, Casey Wasserman is met with calls from LA Mayor Karen Bass to resign from the 2028 Olympic committee.
Casey Wasserman had barely let the door hit him on the way out of the company that bears his name before Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called on him to resign from his position as chairman of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The move comes amid other elected officials urging for Wasserman’s resignation over emails he exchanged years ago with Jeffrey Epstein’s madam and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
As ABC points out, Bass previously declined to take a stance on the matter, but she broke her silence in a recent CNN interview. She stated that while she lacks the authority to fire him from the committee outright, her “opinion is that he should step down.” She noted, however, that “that’s not the opinion of the board.”
“The board made a decision. I think that was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership,” said Bass. “However, my job as mayor of Los Angeles is to make sure that our city is completely prepared to have the best Olympics that has ever happened in Olympic history.”
The LA28 Executive Committee Board has continued to back Wasserman’s position as chair, citing an investigation that examined his past interactions with Maxwell and deemed that nothing further would be revealed in the Justice Department’s ongoing release to the public of the Epstein files and emails.
“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the board said in a statement.
But Bass’ opinion echoes the sentiment of three Los Angeles City Council members and Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who have all released statements calling on Wasserman to resign.
“Having him represent us on the world stage distracts focus from our athletes and the enormous efforts needed to prepare for 2028,” Hahn said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
Casey Wasserman, who is the grandson of a storied Hollywood talent agent, founded the Wasserman sports marketing and talent agency in 1998. In 2021, the firm acquired Paradigm’s music business. However, with talent rapidly leaving the company and Wasserman’s decision to step away from the agency as a whole, it’s too early to tell what evidence of its involvement in the music industry will remain once the dust clears.
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