Los Angeles 2028 Olympics chief Casey Wasserman has apologised after decades-old emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, surfaced in newly released court files related to the late convicted sex offender.
Wasserman, chairman of the organizing committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, said the 2003 email exchanges took place long before Maxwell’s crimes were publicly known. “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Wasserman, 51, said in a statement obtained by AFP.
The emails were part of millions of pages released on Friday by the US Justice Department, adding new attention to the politically sensitive Epstein case that has previously drawn scrutiny on former US President Donald Trump.
In his statement, Wasserman stressed that he “never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.” He noted that he had taken part in a humanitarian trip in 2002 with the Clinton Foundation on Epstein’s plane, which has been previously documented.
International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry said on Sunday in Milan that she had not been in contact with Wasserman regarding the matter and that the IOC was monitoring reports of members appearing in the Epstein files. “We’re obviously watching and monitoring the media… we need some time to look into those reports,” she said.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction for helping Epstein recruit, groom, and abuse underage girls, some as young as 14, between 1994 and 2004. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, and Maxwell was arrested in 2020.
