The embattled chairman of the 2028 L.A. Olympics organizing committee, who has ties to Jeffrey Epstein, is refusing to step down. But it may not be up to him.
Casey Wasserman, a top Hollywood powerbroker, has told friends and colleagues he is ignoring calls to resign after appearing in the latest tranche of Department of Justice documents tied to the Epstein investigation, CNN reported.
Despite that, the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic officials are reportedly having closed-door discussions about replacing Wasserman, 51, with Bob Iger, the outgoing head of The Walt Disney Company, emerging as the frontrunner.
The 35 members of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LAOCOG) are drawn largely from Wasserman’s inner circle and elite orbit. Initially, they agreed to let the executive keep his role after his connections to Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, were made public earlier this month.
But when backlash mounted—so much so that Wasserman announced he was selling his talent agency, which represents major figures including Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto—committee members began to doubt their decision, according to CNN.
Now, Olympics officials and sponsors are reportedly concerned that Wasserman’s connection to the infamous sex trafficker could prevent him from fulfilling the public-facing duties required of the LA28 head, such as raising money and sitting for press interviews.
Leadership at Comcast, which owns Olympics broadcaster NBC, is also squirming amid the Wasserman controversy. Sources told CNN that the scandal is “unwelcome and uncomfortable” for the company and for Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.
The Daily Beast has reached out to representatives for Wasserman, the LA28 committee, and Comcast’s media relations team for comment.
Calls for Wasserman to step down from his civic role have mounted in recent weeks, with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass among those urging him to resign, alongside dozens of other elected California officials. Justice Department records revealed Wasserman flew on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and exchanged suggestive messages with Maxwell for at least a year, according to the files.
“Where are you, I miss you,” Wasserman, who was married at the time, wrote to Maxwell on April 1, 2003. “I will be in nyc for 4 days starting april 22… can we book that massage now?”
Wasserman issued a public apology after the documents were released and said he “deeply regret[s] my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell, which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.”
Still, critics point out that the fallout from the Epstein files has triggered sweeping retribution in the United Kingdom and other European countries, where numerous investigations have been opened to look for evidence of potential wrongdoing—most prominently with the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, on charges of misconduct in office last week.
At the same time, the U.S. has seen little decisive action following the DOJ’s heavily criticized handling of the Epstein documents, in which the president himself is named thousands of times.
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