LA County supervisor calls on Casey Wasserman to resign from Olympics committee

Los Angeles’ man at the helm of the 2028 Olympics is facing calls from a member of the county board of supervisors and of the city council to step down as head of the event’s organizing committee after his name appeared in the latest collection of government files released on Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents include emails from 2003 between sports and entertainment agent Casey Wasserman and Epstein’s one-time girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“I think Casey Wasserman needs to step down,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn told the Los Angeles Times. “Having him represent us on the world stage distracts focus from our athletes and the enormous effort needed to prepare for 2028.”

Later Tuesday, Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez also demanded Wasserman’s resignation.

“At the same time as Ghislaine Maxwell was orchestrating one of the most notorious sex-trafficking operations in our country’s history, she was allegedly romantically involved with the person now serving as Chair of LA28,” he said in a statement. “Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately. Anything less is a distraction and undermines efforts to make sure the Games truly reflect the values of a city that is for everyone.”

NBCLA has reached out to Hahn and Wasserman for comment.

The exchanges included Wasserman telling Maxwell, “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

There is also an email exchange about massages. Another includes Maxwell asking whether it will be foggy enough during an upcoming visit “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”

Wasserman responded, “or something like that.”

In a statement released Saturday, Wasserman said, “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on five counts of sex trafficking and abuse of minors. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The documents were disclosed as mandated by a law passed requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Maxwell. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.