LOS ANGELES - Multiple Los Angeles officials have called on 2028 Olympics chief Casey Wasserman to step down, after the latest batch of files in the Jeffrey Epstein case revealed racy e-mails between the sports executive and the disgraced financier’s girlfriend.
Mr Wasserman, chairman of the organising committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, apologised on Jan 31
after his 2003 e-mails with Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced in the millions of pages of documents released by the US Justice Department on Jan 30.
“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Mr Wasserman said in a statement about his correspondence with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking underage girls for Epstein.
The newly surfaced emails included one message where Mr Wasserman asked to see Maxwell in a “tight leather outfit”. In another, Maxwell offered a massage that could “drive a man wild”.
Mr Wasserman, 51, who was married at the time of his flirtations with Maxwell, has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the Epstein scandal, which has dogged US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Mr Trump moved in the same social circles as the disgraced financier and his right-wing base has long been obsessed with the belief that Epstein oversaw a sex trafficking ring for the world’s elite.
With the link, however tenuous, to Epstein, local officials in Los Angeles have called on Mr Wasserman to step down from his 2028 Olympics post.
“Having (Wasserman) represent us on the world stage distracts focus from our athletes and the enormous efforts needed to prepare for 2028,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn told The Los Angeles Times.
Mr Hugo Soto-Martinez, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, also called on Wasserman to resign.
“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,” Mr Soto-Martinez said in a statement. “Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately.”
In a post on social media, Los Angeles City financial controller Kenneth Mejia added: “Los Angeles cannot trust our financial future to someone connected with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“LA 2028 Olympics Committee Chair Casey Wasserman must take accountability and resign.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Feb 4 declined to be drawn into the controversy, saying in a statement that questions regarding the leadership of the Olympic organising committee should be determined by the board of LA28.
In his statement on Jan 31, Mr Wasserman emphasised that he “never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”.
With the curtain raising on the Milano Cortina Winter Games this week, Ms Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said on Feb 1 that the Olympic movement had “nothing further to add”.
“Anything that is distracting from these Games is sad,” said Ms Coventry, who last March became the first woman IOC chief, one of the most powerful positions in global sport.
Maxwell was convicted of helping Epstein recruit, groom, and sexually abuse girls, some as young as 14, from between 1994 and around 2004.
Epstein took his own life in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was arrested and charged for her crimes in 2020. AFP, REUTERS
