They came one after another, future hosts of the Olympic Games, to sell their visions to the global news media assembled in Milan this week ahead of the Winter Games. But one host city was noticeably subdued.
While organizers from the French Alps (2030), the Australian city of Brisbane (2032) and Salt Lake City (2034) waxed lyrically about their plans, officials representing the next Olympic host city — Los Angeles in 2028 — held a businesslike exchange with members of the International Olympic Committee. Then they slipped out of a Milan convention center with a security detail in tow, not stopping to answer further questions as others did.
The display was unusual, but so are the circumstances surrounding the chairman of the city’s Olympic organizing committee, Casey Wasserman. The Justice Department documents on Jeffrey Epstein released last week revealed that Mr. Wasserman had exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s longtime companion, in 2003.
The communications occurred while Mr. Wasserman was married with a young family, though many years before Ms. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges that she conspired with Mr. Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls. Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died by suicide in 2019 while in prison awaiting a criminal trial on sex-trafficking charges.
In the emails released by the Justice Department, Ms. Maxwell offers to give Mr. Wasserman a massage that will “drive a man wild,” and he conveys his eagerness to see her in a tight leather outfit.
The revelations have prompted some Los Angeles officials to call for his resignation from the Olympic effort. Mr. Wasserman, 51, a well-known entertainment executive and sports agent, has given no indication that he will step down.
Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokeswoman for LA28, the city’s Olympic organizing committee, did not respond to questions. Mr. Wasserman’s publicists at Heller, a New York-based communications company, also did not reply to a request for comment.
Mr. Wasserman has not been accused of wrongdoing by the Justice Department. In a statement released Sunday, he said that he “never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein” and added: “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.”
Two of Los Angeles County’s five supervisors, Janice Hahn and Lindsey Horvath, have denounced Mr. Wasserman’s involvement with Ms. Maxwell, as have five of the 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council.
“Having him represent us on the world stage distracts focus from our athletes and the enormous effort needed to prepare for 2028,” Ms. Hahn said in a statement calling for him to step down.
But neither the supervisors nor the City Council have say over the leadership of the nonprofit LA28, which Mr. Wasserman has headed since its inception in 2017. Some 30 leaders of the city’s civic and athletic community sit on its governing board, but many are friends of Mr. Wasserman, a grandson of the show business mogul Lew Wasserman.
Mayor Karen Bass, who was by Mr. Wasserman’s side at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024, has declined to take a position on his chairmanship.
“Ultimately, any decision on the LA28 leadership must be made by the LA28 Board,” she said on Wednesday. She added that it was “critical to be 100 percent focused on making our city shine and ensuring the 2028 Games are the best in Los Angeles history.”
The low-key appearances by Mr. Wasserman and Los Angeles Olympic officials in Milan did not silence questions about him.
Kirsty Coventry, elected last year as the first female president of the I.O.C., acknowledged to reporters on Wednesday that the first question she was asked at an earlier news conference was about Mr. Wasserman. But she hedged when asked whether he should resign.
“He has put out a statement, and there is really nothing else for me to add,” Ms. Coventry said.
The crisis is not the first Mr. Wasserman has faced over his personal conduct.
Several Los Angeles civic leaders and officials, who requested anonymity to speak freely, noted that a British tabloid had published an article in 2024 — during the Paris Olympics — alleging he’d had numerous extramarital affairs. Although his reputation took a hit, these people said, expectations in Los Angeles have focused on making the Summer Games a financial success.
The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, in 1984, the businessman Peter Ueberroth rallied the city behind a privately funded Summer Olympics that was not only profitable but also widely regarded as the salvation of the Olympic movement internationally.
They also said that while Mr. Wasserman’s connection to the Epstein files is awkward, he is not facing criminal accusations, and that so far, corporate sponsors have not indicated plans to withdraw their association with him or the Games.
The local stakes in Mr. Wasserman’s success are substantial. Los Angeles and the state of California are liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in backup funding if the Games fail to meet revenue targets. Local leaders in Southern California see the Olympics as a catalyst to jump-start improvements to the region’s municipal infrastructure.
More broadly, the Games are seen as a much-needed psychological boost for a region that has been battered by devastating wildfires and an intense and often militarized federal immigration crackdown.
Mr. Wasserman and his team have been deeply involved in planning for the Games, in ways that could challenge a new chairman. Few Los Angeles leaders have been as steeped in the Games’ balance sheet. The project has a budget of more than $7 billion that will be underwritten by a network of corporate partnerships, ticket sales, merchandising and other revenue sources.
He has also established himself as the city’s point man with the Trump administration. That relationship is likely to be crucial in ensuring federal government support for counterterrorism and other public safety efforts across the many venues where the Games will take place.
Jesus Jiménez and Jill Cowan contributed reporting from Los Angeles.
Tariq Panja is a global sports correspondent, focusing on stories where money, geopolitics and crime intersect with the sports world.
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