Mayor calls for LA Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down amid Epstein files fallout
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down following the release of the Hollywood mogul's emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses.
Some flirtatious emails sent between Wasserman and Maxwell in 2003 surfaced through the Department of Justice's release last month of millions of Epstein-related documents. They followed a previously known trip to Africa that Wasserman took on Epstein's plane in 2002 alongside former President Bill Clinton for a humanitarian mission with the Clinton Foundation.
The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week it stands by Wasserman after its review found that his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell "did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented."
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Bass said she disagrees with the board.
"The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don't support the decision," Bass said.
The mayor, who noted that she is not able to fire Wasserman, said she thinks that "we need to look at the leadership" of LA28 and that her job is to ensure the city is "completely prepared" to host the Summer Olympics.
Wasserman heads LA28, the organizing committee responsible for delivering the 2028 Games, including securing corporate sponsors and other funding. He was previously the LA Olympic Bid Committee president.
"My opinion is, is that he should step down," Bass said. "That's not the opinion of the board."
ABC News has reached out to Wasserman's spokesperson and LA28 for comment regarding Bass' remarks and has not yet received a response.
Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein in 2021.
In the newly publicized emails, sent nearly 20 years before Maxwell's arrest, Wasserman told her in one exchange, "I think of you all the time... So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?"
Since the emails came to light, Wasserman's eponymous sports marketing and talent management company has lost several clients, including the singers Chappell Roan and Orville Peck and the former soccer player Abby Wambach.
Wasserman apologized for what he called his "past personal mistakes" in a message to his staff last week obtained by ABC News through his spokesperson.
"Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals," he said. "It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending. And I'm heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks."
Wasserman said in his message to his staff that he believes he has become a "distraction" and has started the process to sell his company while he devotes his "full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city."
The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week that it "takes allegations of misconduct seriously" and conducted a review of Wasserman's past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell with the help of outside counsel.
"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, citing the 2002 flight to Africa on Epstein's plane and the 2003 emails with Maxwell.
"The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games," the board said.
