Mayor Karen Bass stunningly called on Casey Wasserman to resign from his role as LA Olympics boss, an escalation in the fallout faced by the talent agency head since his racy, decades-old email exchanges with Jeffery Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced last month.
“I cannot fire him, but I have an opinion,” Bass said in a CNN interview on Monday night.
“And my opinion is that he should step down. That’s not the opinion of the board,” the mayor declared.
On Monday, a member of the LA28 board told The California Post, “Casey has the full support of the board, he’s not going anywhere, and the board is set up as an independent entity.”
Bass had been non-committal on the scandal in the weeks after the Maxwell emails were made public, placing the onus on the the LA28 executive committee when asked about Wasserman’s future.
“Ultimately, any decision on the LA28 leadership must be made by the LA28 Board,” the mayor said in a Feb. 4 statement after being pressed about the issue at a City Hall press conference.
But the Democratic mayor drastically changed her tune on Monday night, days after DSA-backed Los Angeles councilmember Nithya Raman – who is running to unseat Bass – tore into the LA28 for keeping Wasserman on board.
“I am disappointed by the decision made by the LA28 Board’s Executive Committee to continue their contract with Casey Wasserman,” Raman said on Feb. 11.
Bigwigs on the executive committee voted unanimously to keep Wasserman on as chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics last week.
The committee cited the “strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years” in making its decision.
“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the board said in a statement.
Bass blasted the board’s decision in her Monday night interview.
“The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership.”
While Wasserman, 51, has retained his Olympics gig, he is selling his talent agency, revealing the news to staffers at the eponymous agency last Friday.
“I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort,” Wasserman wrote in the memo reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about,” he wrote.
Wasserman and Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence after her sex-trafficking conviction, exchanged a series of risqué emails, which were revealed in files released by the DOJ.
“Where are you, I miss you,” Wasserman wrote to Epstein’s confidante on Apr. 1, 2003.
“I will be in NYC for 4 days starting april 22…can we book that massage now?”
Two days later, Maxwell fired back with a steamy response: “all that rubbing — are you sure you can take it? The thought frankly is leaving me a little breathless.”
A day after the Maxwell emails were made public, Wasserman apologized and claimed he never had a “relationship” with Epstein.
“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Wasserman said in a statement.
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