Casey Wasserman Must Resign. The Integrity of the 2028 L.A. Olympics Depends on It

The LA28 chair’s ties to Ghislaine Maxwell and the Epstein Files should make it clear that the upcoming Summer Games are better off without him.

Casey Wasserman is under immense pressure to resign as chair of the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee. | Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Casey Wasserman needs to go, and he needs to go now. U.S. Olympic officials should pressure the LA28 board to remove Wasserman as chair of the Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee. Wasserman’s exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein’s chief accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, are a storm cloud that will hover over the L.A. Olympics for as long as he is in charge.

To explain why Wasserman needs to go, we turn to … Casey Wasserman.

Last week, Wasserman told employees in an email at his eponymous agency that he was selling the company. His reasoning:

“Our clients expect—and deserve—world-class representation. And that’s exactly what they get because of all of you. At this moment, I believe that I have become a distraction to those efforts.”

Why are the Olympics any different? How can Wasserman be a distraction to his agency, but not to the Olympics?

There is no evidence that Wasserman had contact with Epstein, or that he knew anyone had committed a crime at the time he communicated with Maxwell. Wasserman, himself, has not been charged with a crime. But selling the agency is not a selfless act. It is a response to events.

Clients started to bail. Agents would have had a choice: try to convince clients to stick around until the Wasserman storm passed, or leave and try to take those clients with them.

If you were an agent, what would you do?

You might really enjoy working with Wasserman. You might like him personally. You might believe him when he wrote that his relationship with Maxwell, “in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending.” But would you expect everyone else to believe it? Would you be willing to lose clients over it? 

That is where LA28 finds itself now. Board members might believe Wasserman completely. But the public is a client they can’t afford to lose. This week, L.A. mayor Karen Bass said she would like Wasserman to step down, putting Wasserman at odds with the mayor of the host city.

President Donald Trump (right) signed an executive order creating a task force to facilitate logistics for the L.A. Olympics. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Wasserman declined SI’s request for an interview; LA28, and the USOPC did not respond to requests for comment.

But you are the client.

This is what you know:

The humanitarian mission with former President Bill Clinton was in September 2002. The next month, Maxwell sent Wasserman a package. She sent another one to Wasserman in December 2002. O.K., fine. Two FedEx packages, 23 years ago: Who cares?

The email exchanges are what is concerning. SI is reprinting excerpts of those emails.

In March 2003, Maxwell sent Wasserman an email:

I landed in PB this morning and for the first time climbed into 491 GM and flew off - all the linesmen came out to watch - I was not sure if it was because they feared for their safety and staying outdoors was a safer bet or perhaps the tight leather flying outfit had something to do with it.

Wasserman replied:

I think of you all the time.

So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?

I am in NY tonight, youre not, what am I to do? 

On April 1, 2003—more than six months after the Africa trip—Wasserman wrote to Maxwell:

Where are you, I miss you.

I will be in nyc for 4 days starting april 22...can we book that massage now?

The next day, Wasserman wrote:

Well I thought we would start at that place that you know of, and then continue the massage concept into your bed...and then again in the morning...not sure if or when we would stop.

I am interested in the Cigar concept, and am glad you got all those hours before you fly me!

That night, Maxwell replied:

all that rubbing - are you sure you can take it? The thought frankly is leaving me a little breathless. There are a few spots that apparently drive a man wild - I suppose I could practise them on you and you could let me know if they work or not? + just for the record the cigar concept currently has pride of place in my bedroom!

Wasserman to Maxwell, April 4:

I am really looking forward to seeing you.

Maxwell to Wasserman, April 7:

I cant sleep – where are you when I need you?

On April 12, Maxwell asked Wasserman if she could fly with him from L.A. to New York. He wrote back:

of course

She signed her next email:

Kisses, Ghislaine

Wasserman describes this as “brief contact.” He says it covers the entirety of the relationship. 

He has not said why—six months after the humanitarian trip—he and Maxwell started sending such overtly sexual emails. The emails don’t tell us whether Maxwell joined Wasserman on his flight to New York, as they discussed. They don’t say whether they followed through on the plans to meet in person. The emails start with no context, and then stop with no context.

The LA28 board released a statement backing Wasserman as chair after conducting a review of his interactions with Ghislaine Maxwell. | DOUG HOKE/THEOKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

One more point on these emails: Besides being salacious and concerning, they are memorable.

Epstein was arrested on federal charges in 2019. Clinton released details of his relationship with Epstein that same year. Maxwell was arrested in 2020. The Epstein files have been a national conversation topic going back (at least) to before the 2024 election.

It is reasonable to assume that Wasserman knew his emails might be in the files. He could have proactively detailed his own interactions with Maxwell before the public knew about it. If you want to show you have nothing to hide, then don’t hide anything. Instead, we learned about this last week.

This is important, too: Running an Olympics is a high-profile job. It is not a right. Asking Wasserman to resign is not a punishment. It is an acknowledgment that the Olympics would be better off with someone else in charge.

Somebody else should lead LA28 from here to when the cauldron is lit. We have too many questions about Wasserman’s old e-mail flame to trust him with that one.

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