Casey Wasserman, chairman of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has been called to resign by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, due to his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. It was found this month that Wasserman and Maxwell shared intimate emails for more than two decades.
Bass said that she does not have the power to fire Wasserman and that the Los Angeles 2028 board has decided against firing him, but "my job as mayor of Los Angeles is to make sure that our city is completely prepared to have the best Olympics that has ever happened in Olympic history."
Wasserman, American sport agent who led the successful bid for the 2028 Olympic Games in 2017, said he deeply regretted the emails shared with Maxwell, and that he never had any relationship with Epstein, other than meeting him once in 2003, when Wasserman and his then wife flew to a humanitarian mission in Africa in Epstein's plane.
In 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein and sentenced to 20 years in prison: she attracted teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
While Wasserman has not been found of any wrongdoing, her close relationship with one of Epstein's sex traffickers has increased pressure for his resignation. Before the Los Angeles Mayor, many members of the Los Angeles County and City Council have also asked for his departure from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.