"Casey Wasserman goes against our values”: Wednesday to sever ties with booking agency

On 31 January, the US Department of Justice published millions of government files on Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing sex trafficking charges in 2019 before taking his life just a month later.

The files include flirtatious e-mail correspondence pulled from 2003 between Ghislaine Maxwell, who is presently serving a twenty-year prison sentence for conspiring to sexually abuse minors in connection with Epstein, and Casey Wasserman, founder and CEO of Wasserman Media Group.

Today, North Carolina band Wednesday have taken to Instagram to announce that, following the release of this information, they will be separating from Wasserman agency.

"Last week, we were among the hundreds of artists who were appalled to find out about Casey Wasserman's communications with Ghislaine Maxwell that were made public in the latest release of the Epstein files," the band write. "We feel it's urgent that we make several things clear in the aftermath:

"We stand with all survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking. We have never met or communicated with Casey Wasserman. Not once. We find Casey's attempts to deflect and dismiss this situation deeply troubling."

Wednesday continue their statement with an acknowledgement of those that they've worked with at the agency, describing them as "decent and trustworthy people with whom we've worked with for several years dating back to a time prior to their connection with Wasserman."

"Given the circumstances, we feel strongly that we need to begin the process of extracting ourselves from Wasserman," the band conclude. "Continuing to be represented by a company led by and named after Casey Wasserman goes against our values and cannot continue. For the sake of his staff we hope that he steps down from the company and it is rebranded, but until that happens or we find a home at a new agency we will not continue to be associated with Wasserman."

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Wasserman Media Group presently represents hundreds of artists under its music division, which launched in 2021, and Wednesday have not been the first to call for Wasserman to step down from his position.

Last Thursday (5 February) Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino, who has been represented by Wasserman Music since the agency's inception, shared an open letter stating that she'd asked to remove her name and the Best Coast name from the company website.

"This is a call for him to step down and a change of business name be imminent," Cosentino urges. "I'm speaking out because pretending this is normal isn't normal. Because people in power can't keep skating by. And because the artists keeping the lights on at Wasserman deserve support, not to be ignored while men in power are protected. It is important for us as artists to remember: these people work for us, not the other way around."

Sleigh Bells vocalist Alexis Krauss, who is also under Wasserman, has also spoken out in response to the matter, condemning the "moral bankruptcy" of the music industry while also acknowledging why it's so difficult for artists to boycott the institutions that back them. "In my opinion it's not the responsibility of the artists, especially those struggling to make a living, to fix these broken systems," Krauss notes. "I'm not saying we're powerless, but without systemic change and accountability for those at the highest levels of power, no meaningful change is going to occur."

Beyond the music world, Los Angeles officials have also called for Wasserman to step down from his position as the chair of the LA28 Olympics committee, with county supervisor Janice Hahn stating: “Having him represent us on the world stage distracts focus from our athletes and the enormous effort needed to prepare for 2028."

Wasserman has not yet responded to these appeals for his resignation.