Two West Hollywood City Council members said Tuesday they plan to introduce a resolution next month urging Casey Wasserman to resign as chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee amid ongoing controversy over his past communications with Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Council members Chelsea Lee Byers and John Erickson joined a growing list of Democratic elected officials in Southern California calling for Wasserman’s removal from a leadership role in the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Their remarks came a day after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass broke her silence on the issue, saying that while she can’t fire Wasserman, he should step down.
Speaking at a news conference at West Hollywood Park, the council members said they intend to introduce a resolution March 2 calling on Wasserman to resign and urging the LA28 executive board to hold him accountable. If approved, the measure would make West Hollywood the first city to formally take a position on the issue, according to Erickson.
The council members said the resolution is also intended to signal support for survivors of human trafficking and sexual violence.
“Casey Wasserman must resign, and I call upon every elected leader in Los Angeles County and across this nation because that’s what it’s going to take for him to resign,” Erickson said. “West Hollywood will lead the way.”
Byers, who was mayor of West Hollywood in 2025, said the city has consistently stood with survivors and called for accountability from people in positions of power.
With the city expected to host activations and events for the 2028 Games, Byers said “we refuse to look the other way while the Games are fronted by a chair whose own emails with a convicted trafficker are now a part of the public record.”
“The LA28 Board’s secretive review may satisfy lawyers, but it does nothing for those in our community who want to know that this region is not promoting the old boys club of impunity as we watch the Winter Olympics Games now and hear the stories of dedication and commitment and resilience of athletes, their coaches and families,” Byers said.
“We should all care deeply that our own Olympic Games here in Los Angeles would risk the distraction, at the very least, of Wasserman’s mired history competing for air time over what that stage is truly meant for,” Byers continued.
Joining Byers and Erickson were representatives from organizations that advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
Samantha Maloney — a professional drummer who has performed with bands including Shift, Hole and Eagles of Death Metal, and others — and Lisa Phillips, a Los Angeles County resident and survivor connected to the Epstein case, co-founded the Sexual Predator Accountability Institute, which they described as a political advocacy movement led by survivors for survivors.
“In May of 2022, Rolling Stone reported that a Warner Music Group CEO sexually harassed me at the Grammys in 2017, like countless others. I was pressured to be silenced and signed an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). In doing so, I was blacklisted from an industry that I loved and spent most of my life successfully working in,” Maloney said.
“I realized I had to leave the music industry in order to change it,” Maloney added.
Maloney urged Wasserman to step down as LA28 chairman, saying, “Mr. Wasserman, you have turned your back on these survivors, like our administration has. Hollywood does not have your back anymore.”
Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, addressed reporters Tuesday for a daily briefing during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, in which he maintained the issue is still in the hands of the LA28 Executive Board.
“As you know, an independent law firm looked into it, and it’s up to the board to draw their own conclusions,” Adams said. “I understand there are many conversations happening at this moment, but I will not make any further comment.”
In a CNN interview Monday, Bass said that while she can’t fire Wasserman from the committee, her “opinion is that he should step down.”
Bass’ remarks came weeks after three Los Angeles City Council members and County Supervisor Janice Hahn called on Wasserman to resign over a string of racy emails with Maxwell, who’s been convicted of sex trafficking for her role in a widespread sexual abuse scandal involving the late Epstein.
Despite these calls for Wasserman’s resignation, the LA28 Executive Committee Board backed Wasserman as chair, citing an independent investigation that examined his past interactions with Maxwell.
The Board — the leaders responsible for planning and executing the preparations for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles — said in a statement that the organization takes allegations of misconduct seriously, and is committed to thoroughly reviewing any concerns related to the organization’s leadership.
LA28 hired outside counsel O’Melveny & Myers LLP to conduct a review of Wasserman’s past interactions with Maxwell and Epstein. The board said Wasserman fully cooperated with the review.
“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.
“Twenty-three years ago, before Mr. Wasserman or the public knew of Epstein and Maxwell’s deplorable crimes, Mr. Wasserman and his then-wife flew on a humanitarian mission to Africa on Epstein’s plane at the invitation of the Clinton Foundation. This was his single interaction with Epstein. Shortly after, he traded the publicly known emails with Maxwell,” the board said.
Wasserman has apologized for his correspondence with Maxwell, and reiterated it happened long before her and Epstein’s crimes came to light. He’s also denied having a personal or business relationship with Epstein.
Wasserman’s name surfaced when the latest batch of Epstein documents were made public by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its investigation into Epstein, who died in a jail cell in August 2019 of a reported suicide as he awaited trial on federal charges.
The former financier was accused of procuring underage girls to perform sexual favors for various highly influential millionaires and billionaires at a private island.
The documents revealed multiple salacious email exchanges between Wasserman and Maxwell, Epstein’s associate who was convicted in 2021 on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping Epstein procure girls and young women.
Michael Carrillo, an attorney who has represented survivors of sexual violence, said LA28’s report was not enough.
“This is sending a message to all survivors that: `We will back powerful individuals like Casey Wasserman, but we will not care or protect you.’ It is sending a message that the LA29 Olympic Committee is more concerned about saving Wasserman than mingling sex trafficking issues with the 2028 Olympics,” Carrillo said.
Caroline Heldman, an advocate for survivors, emphasized the Olympics are not a “private playground for wealthy men and for the powerful.” She described the Games as a “civic trust that belongs to all of us.”
“If LA28 wants to regain its moral authority, and I assure you, you have lost it, the board must immediately remove Casey Wasserman. You cannot build an Olympic foundation on complicity. L.A. deserves better. Survivors deserve better,” Heldman said.