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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has urged Casey Wasserman to resign as the leader of the 2028 Olympics organizing committee following the release of communications between him and Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
The unveiling of Epstein-related documents has brought to light emails from 2003, where Wasserman and Maxwell engaged in a series of flirtatious conversations.
One message from Wasserman to Maxwell read, “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
In another exchange, they discussed massages, with Maxwell suggesting it might be foggy enough “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”
Wasserman replied to this suggestion with, “or something like that.”
Though Wasserman said that he deeply regrets his past correspondence with Maxwell, saying they occurred “long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called for him to step down even after the LA28 board voted that he stay following an investigation.
“My opinion is that he should step down,” Bass told CNN on Monday, adding that she could not fire Wasserman.
Bass also called the LA28 board’s decision to keep Wasserman “unfortunate.”
“I think that decision was unfortunate,” Bass told CNN. “I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership. However, 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.”
The International Olympic Committee has avoided the controversy by regularly deflecting questions.
“I understand there are many conversations happening at this moment, but I will not make any further comment,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Tuesday in Milan. “This is obviously a matter for the board of LA28, still at this stage.”
The entertainment and sports agency Wasserman, founded by Wasserman, has been struggling since the Epstein emails were released, with pop star Chappell Roan and soccer star Wambach terminating their clientship.
In December 2021, a jury convicted Maxwell of sex trafficking minors, including the transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, along with three counts of conspiracy. She was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.