Casey Wasserman, the head of the LA28 Olympic committee, is facing growing calls to resign after the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein documents revealed racy emails between him and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n
Wasserman, in Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, has not responded to demands from several L.A. politicians who say that the controversy doesn\u2019t align with the values of the Games and that he needs to step down.<\/p>\n
He issued a statement over the weekend apologizing for the emails but hasn\u2019t directly addressed reporters in the U.S. or Italy, where Olympics officials are facing questions about Wasserman after his name surfaced in the files released by the U.S. Department of Justice in the Epstein case. <\/p>\n
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in New York City\u2019s Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declined to weigh in on the controversy around Wasserman, releasing a statement Wednesday that said LA28\u2019s board of directors is responsible for deciding LA28\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
Calls and emails to representatives for several LA28 board members, including actor Jessica Alba and entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, were not returned this week. <\/p>\n
Wasserman is president of the board, which is made up of dozens of high-profile leaders in sports, business, labor and other fields.<\/p>\n
Some of those seeking Wasserman\u2019s resignation emphasized how the scandal tainted the Olympics\u2019 celebration of female athletes, with L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath arguing that LA28 must \u201cdemonstrate how much they truly value women\u201d when it comes to Wasserman\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, state Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and five Los Angeles City Council members \u2014 Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez, Monica Rodriguez, Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez and Imelda Padilla \u2014 are among those who have called for his resignation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard for him to survive this,\u201d said communications consultant Helen Sanchez. <\/p>\n
Sanchez, who walked in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a volunteer, said Wasserman lacks close relationships with L.A. elected officials and community members who might come to his defense. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t view Casey Wasserman as a person who\u2019s generated a lot of goodwill in the city,\u201d Sanchez said. <\/p>\n
Wasserman survived a previous scandal. In 2024, a story in the Daily Mail<\/a>, a British tabloid, alleged that Wasserman had several affairs, while married, with women who worked for him, an allegation he denied. <\/p>\n The report was published during the August Paris Olympic Games around the time that Wasserman was in the French city to talk about Los Angeles\u2019 plans to host in 2028.<\/p>\n Singer Billie Eilish \u2014 one of Wasserman\u2019s clients at his entertainment agency \u2014 stepped away from his firm because of the infidelity allegations, according to the Hollywood Reporter.<\/a> <\/p>\n Wasserman at the time dismissed the allegations and refused to resign from his job leading LA28. <\/p>\n Many of the women mentioned in the 2024 Daily Mail story and related stories in other outlets declined to speak to The Times in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n The latest controversy over Wasserman\u2019s name being included in the politically charged Epstein files surfaced last week. <\/p>\n In emails sent in March and April 2003, Wasserman \u2014 who was married at the time \u2014 wrote to Maxwell about wanting to book a massage and wanting to see her in a tight leather outfit.<\/p>\n She offered to give him a massage that can \u201cdrive a man wild,\u201d and the pair discussed how much they missed each other, according to emails posted online<\/a> by federal officials. <\/p>\n