Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Says Casey Wasserman Should Step Down as LA28 Chairman

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says Casey Wasserman “should step down” from his role as chairman of the LA28 Olympic organizing committee that is driving the Summer Games given the tumult stirred by his appearance in the Epstein files.

Bass has been a supporter of Wasserman’s in the past. But in an interview Monday with CNN anchor Dana Bash, the mayor voiced her opinion that Wasserman should resign from his high-profile post.

“My opinion is that he should step down. That’s the not the opinion of the board,” Bass said during her appearance on CNN’s “The Lead.” Bass emphasized that the LA28 board is not a city-appointed entity but answerable to its board members and the International Olympic Committee.

Wasserman has come under fire over the past three weeks after the Justice Department disclosed millions of pages of files related to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The files reveal that in 2003 Wasserman had an intimate relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, who was a longtime associate of Epstein’s and is now in federal prison on related sex trafficking charges. Wasserman has apologized for his association with Maxwell as stated that he was unaware of the Epstein and Maxwell’s activities.

But the backlash has been so swift and so fierce that Wasserman has been forced to put his namesake talent representation and marketing firm up for sale. On Feb. 13, Wasserman disclosed the sale plan and said he would concentrate his efforts on achieving his dream of bringing Olympics back to L.A. Wasserman earlier in the week survived an LA28 board vote that reaffirmed his status as leader.

Bass initially declined to comment on Wasserman’s status atop the LA28 committee. But as she fights through a tough re-election process, Bass on Monday made a calculated decision to take a position.

“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, so my focus is a little different,” Bass told Bash. “But the behavior of Maxwell, what they were involved in, is abhorrent, and it’s an issue that I’ve worked on for a long time.”