Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is urging on Casey Wasserman to step down as chairperson of LA28 in the wake of the fallout of his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell being made public.
During an interview with CNN on Monday, Bass clarified that while she does not have the authority to remove Wasserman from the position, her “opinion is that he should step down.”
Her comments are a stark contrast from the vote of confidence that board members of the organizing committee gave on behalf of Wasserman last week.
“The board made a decision. I think that was unfortunate,” Bass said in the interview. “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.”
Bass had previously not made any statements regarding Wasserman, who has faced mounting pressure to exit his namesake talent management and sports marketing company that he founded in 2002.
Following the segment on CNN, the mayor’s office released a statement, reiterating Bass’s call for Wasserman to resign as chairman.
“In an interview with CNN today, Mayor Karen Bass said that LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman should ‘step down.’ The Mayor also added, ‘The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision.’ She continued, ‘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.'”
LA28 representatives did not respond to requests for a comment on Bass’s statement.
Last Friday, Wasserman announced that he would sell his stake in his company after several clients revealed they would cut ties with the agency.
“This organization, its leadership and the entire team mean the world to me,” Wasserman’s said to the company’s staff in a memo. “Our 4,000 employees are the absolute best in the business. I see you put it all on the line for your clients every day. Our clients expect – and deserve – world-class representation. And that’s exactly what they get because of all of you.”
The following day, Providence Equity Partners, which holds around 60 percent of the firm, backed interim chief Mike Watts and the company will reportedly be renamed once Wasserman fully divests his holdings.
Meanwhile, Wasserman said he would put his focus on the continued work of leading the effort of curating the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles — which now faces scrutiny from the mayor.
Wasserman was mentioned among a trove of documents in the Department of Justice document disclosure of Epstein.
It was revealed that in 2002 Wasserman took a philanthropic trip to Africa aboard Epstein’s private jet with the Clinton Foundation and exchanged several flirtatious emails with Maxwell in 2003.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with helping recruit victims in a sex-trafficking ring with Epstein. In 2019, Epstein killed himself in a New York jail as he was awaiting trial.
The board said it worked with an outside law firm to conduct an inquiry of Wasserman and felt that its investigation was sufficient in clearing him of any findings that would impact his role as chairman.
“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the executive committee said in a statement. “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.”
