LA mayor calls for Casey Wasserman to step down as Olympics chair over Epstein ties | Olympic Games
Pressure increased Tuesday on Casey Wasserman as head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing team after the city’s mayor urged him to end his ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNN Monday night “my opinion is he should resign,” although Wasserman won support last week from the LA 2028 organizing committee to stay.
The issue has been a distraction for the International Olympic Committee this month since Wasserman’s flirtatious 2003 emails with Ghislaine Maxwell were published in a release of U.S. government documents days before the Milan Cortina Winter Games opened.
The IOC had consistently brushed off questions in Milan about Wasserman, saying it was a matter for the LA28 board, although its language changed slightly on Tuesday.
“I understand that there are many conversations taking place at the moment but I will not make any further comment,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Tuesday at the Olympic body’s daily news conference in Milan.
“This is obviously a matter for the LA28 board of directors, still at this point,” Adams said.
Mayor Bass said of Wasserman that “I can’t fire him” in an in-studio interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, but has said publicly that she thinks he should go.
Wasserman appears to be in more trouble since the entertainment and sports agency he founded and which bears his name lost clients, including pop star Chappell Roan and Abby Wambach, the former world’s best women’s soccer player, following the publication of the emails. He is now in the process of selling the agency.
Scrutiny of Wasserman has intensified despite support from the Los Angeles Olympics board last week, based on a review, with which he cooperated, by outside legal counsel of his contacts with Epstein and Maxwell.
“I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support that decision. I think we need to look at the leadership,” Bass said.
“However, my job as mayor of Los Angeles is to ensure that our city is completely prepared to host the best Olympic Games ever in Olympic history,” she told CNN.
California Mayor and Governor Gavin Newsom have a key role to play in the success of the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games by ensuring that all levels of government support the complex logistical challenges that will engulf the city in July and August 2028.
Wasserman has been a driving force behind the Los Angeles Olympics since the bid was launched in 2015. Questions about his status swirled before he arrived in Milan two weeks ago to meet with IOC members and attend the Winter Games opening ceremony.
The Los Angeles organizing team presented an update to the reception plan to IOC members at their annual meeting.
Wasserman and other officials were questioned on issues such as visa processing for international visitors to the United States, but not on personnel matters. They did not meet with international media later, unlike officials from other future Olympic hosts.
Wasserman has not been charged with criminal acts in connection with Epstein and Maxwell.
In a statement released before his arrival in Milan, Wasserman said: “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” which took place “long before her horrific crimes came to light.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of five counts of sex trafficking and child abuse, and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein’s death in a New York prison cell in 2019 was ruled a suicide and came a month after he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
