Karen Bass can’t fire Casey Wasserman as the head of Los Angeles’ 2028 Olympic Games, but she sure wants the soon-to-be former agency boss out ASAP.
“My opinion is, is that he should step down,” LA Mayor Bass said this Presidents’ Day on CNN. “That’s not the opinion of the board,” the reelection seeking incumbent added of the unanimous backing that Wasserman recieved from his handpicked LA Olympics board on February 11.
“The committee that is involved with the Olympics has the discretion, the board made a decision,” Mayor Bass said Monday in a big break from her previously much more circumspect statements about Wasserman as more of his relationships with now dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his currently imprisoned chief procurer Ghislaine Maxwell came to light. “I think that decision was unfortunate.”
“I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership”
At that emergency LA28 board meeting last week and with ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seen as a potential replacement, the most vocal advocate for keeping the increasingly besieged Wasserman in his role was Jeffrey Katzenberg, sources close to events said at the time.
(l-R) Jeffrey Katzenberg & Casey Wasserman on April 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA . (Photo: Getty)
The Katzenberg connection between Bass and the Eric Garcetti-appointed Wasserman has long been seen as fundamental to their relationship preparing the city for the 2028 Summer Games. With an emphasis on solutions for LA’s homelessness blight, Katzenberg was a major cheerleader and donor for the longtime Congresswoman hard fought bid for LA’s top job in 2022.
Today, the unpopular Mayor’s seemingly uncontested campaign now has real rivals. Add to that worries have been increasing in influential circles over Wasserman’s judgement in not revealing his Epstein links earlier
As is so often said political matters, it is not the crime, but the cover-up. Which is why, clearly anticipating the question from CNN’s Dana Bash, Bass put the realpolitik of the fate of Lew Wasserman’s grandson on the table.
Wasserman, who promised associates late last year that his already known 2002 humanitarian trip with Epstein, Bill Clinton, Maxwell and others was the full extent of his association with the 2008 convicted sex offender, has a “credibility problem,” an insider says.
Bass’ remarks on cable TV also come as more and more LA politicians, including one who wants Bass’ job, are calling for the LA28 Chair to resign. Time and time gain, the call is for Wasserman not be a “distraction” to theCity of Angels’ latest turn in the spotlight in two years.
“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,” Bass told CNN’s Dana Bash with some virtue and vice signaling to the board, the IOC and Wasserman buddy Donald Trump. “So my focus is a little different, but the behavior of Maxwell, what they were involved in is abhorrent,” she stated.
“Bass is a smart operator,” a well-positioned individual with strong links to City Hall and Hollywood told Deadline tonight. “She knows Wasserman is going to be a problem for her reelection, a problem for the Olympics, so she made her move. It’s up to the board again next, but how can he go on now ?”
Sports marketing and talent agency founder Wasserman left his company, clients and large swaths of Hollywood aghast when a series of seemingly sordid and suggestive emails from 2003 between his then married self and Maxwell emerged on January 30 among the millions of heavily-redacted pages and images on Epstein dumped out by the Department of Justice. As Wasserman prepared to head to Italy for the opening of the XXV Winter Olympics Games, his folks put out a carefully crafted statement insisting the exec was “terribly sorry for having any association” with the 2019 dead by suicide Epstein and Maxwell.
Representatives for Wasserman had nothing to say tonight on Mayor Bass’ insistence that he resigned from LA28. Wasserman pal Governor Gavin Newsom has returned to California and seems likely to be in contact with the LA28 chair, I hear.
With all that, as robust as the LA28 board support was last week, Wasserman has been feeling the tide turning in recent days.
After weeks of insistence that he would not step away from his Wasserman group, even as top clients liker Chappell Roan and soccer icon Abby Wambach left, Wasserman announced late on February 13 that he is selling his stake in his own company. Amidst promises to focus on LA28, Wasserman couldn’t avoid echoing the language of the likes of mayoral candidate and City Council member Nithya Raman and others, and pledge not to be a “distraction” due to his appearance in the toxic Epstein Files.
Investment firm Providence Equity Partners, Wasserman’s biggest backer, watched the client exodus and agent rumblings with trepidation before finally last week telling the exec, holds a 40% stake in the company baring his famous name, it was time to go.
Out and about over NBA All-Star weekend in LA the past few days, Wasserman has also had to step back from other public events due to his Epstein and Maxwell links. His status at a February 26 gathering with LA28 board member and ex-LA Lakers owner Jeanie Bass is unclear right now, as organizers seek to find an exit strategy.
At a costing of over $7 billion and growing, and deeply reliant on funding from Trump and the feds, LA’s third Summer Olympics will take place from July 14-30, 2028 — with or without Casey Wasserman or Karen Bass.
