The USOPC has reaffirmed support for LA 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman after newly released Epstein-related emails sparked calls for his resignation.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has decided not to change course on its leadership for Los Angeles 2028, even as fresh Epstein-related correspondence puts the spotlight back on chairman Casey Wasserman.
The focus is on newly released Department of Justice files that include emails linking Wasserman to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and to Ghislaine Maxwell. who is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein abuse minors.. The USOPC’s position. delivered during a Thursday news conference. was simple: it would not add anything beyond Wasserman’s regret.
USOPC officials said they see no need to broaden the commentary after Wasserman expressed remorse over his historical emails.. They also framed the matter as a separate question from accusations of wrongdoing. noting that Wasserman has not been accused of any crime.. In the same breath. committee chair Gene Sykes said Wasserman’s statement “stands on its own. ” while emphasizing continued support for the LA 2028 committee and its goal of delivering the city’s first Olympics since 1984.
That support has not quieted criticism.. Calls for Wasserman to step down have come from elected officials and advocates who argue that an Olympic leadership role requires more than legal clearance. especially when associations emerge with convicted traffickers.. L.A.. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said if LA28 is serious about promoting women in record numbers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. its leadership should not be affiliated with a convicted human trafficker.
The emails themselves have become the emotional center of the controversy.. Reporting around the files includes a message from Wasserman to Maxwell in which he said he thinks of her “all the time” and asked what he would need to do to see her in a “tight leather outfit.” Maxwell’s crimes have since been established in court. and that context has turned even long-ago correspondence into a broader credibility test for institutions that depend on public trust.
There is a broader lesson for major sports organizations in how quickly reputations can shift when previously hidden records surface.. Olympic bodies are not just sports administrators; they act as global symbols for values like safety, fairness, and inclusion.. When names attached to powerful networks reappear alongside notorious abuse. the damage is often measured less in whether a person is criminally charged and more in whether the public believes the organization can set clear moral standards.
For USOPC leadership, the decision to “stand by” Wasserman is also a bet on message discipline.. Overreacting to incomplete context can create its own institutional risk, while refusing to respond enough can look tone-deaf to critics.. The current approach—backing Wasserman while leaning on his expression of regret—signals that the USOPC wants to keep focus on Olympic delivery rather than internal upheaval.
Still, the argument from critics is not abstract.. Public-facing leaders of large events are judged in the same way corporate sponsors and national brands often are: by how transparently they handle uncomfortable histories and how quickly they draw boundaries when reputational risk spikes.. In that sense, the pressure on Wasserman is tied to the upcoming Games’ narrative, not only to legal exposure.
The backlash is also taking on a comparative angle.. In the same reporting cycle. Brad Karp—longtime chairman of the Paul Weiss law firm—resigned after the revelation that he exchanged emails with Epstein and had been a guest at his New York mansion.. Karp said the distraction was not in the firm’s best interests.. That parallel is likely to keep the pressure on LA28 leadership. because it shows how quickly different institutions decided to act once their own connections became public.
Going forward. the next phase will likely be less about the USOPC’s immediate stance and more about how LA28 responds if the story expands beyond emails to include additional documents. relationships. or governance concerns.. For now. the committee is choosing continuity. but the reputational question remains: can the Olympic movement’s promise of progress and protection withstand the fallout when its leaders are named in revelations tied to exploitation?
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