Mayor calls for LA Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down amid Epstein files fallout
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivers her State of the City address Monday, February 2, in Los Angeles at the Expo Center.(Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down following the release of the Hollywood mogul’s emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses.
Some flirtatious emails sent between Wasserman and Maxwell in 2003 surfaced through the Department of Justice’s release last month of millions of Epstein-related documents. They followed a previously known trip to Africa that Wasserman took on Epstein’s plane in 2002 alongside former President Bill Clinton for a humanitarian mission with the Clinton Foundation.
The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week it stands by Wasserman after its review found that his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.”
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Bass said she disagrees with the board.
“The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision,” Bass said.
The mayor, who noted that she is not able to fire Wasserman, said she thinks that “we need to look at the leadership” of LA28 and that her job is to ensure the city is “completely prepared” to host the Summer Olympics.
Wasserman heads LA28, the organizing committee responsible for delivering the 2028 Games, including securing corporate sponsors and other funding. He was previously the LA Olympic Bid Committee president.
“My opinion is, is that he should step down,” Bass said. “That’s not the opinion of the board.”
ABC News has reached out to Wasserman’s spokesperson and LA28 for comment regarding Bass’ remarks and has not yet received a response.
Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein in 2021.
In the newly publicized emails, sent nearly 20 years before Maxwell’s arrest, Wasserman told her in one exchange, “I think of you all the time… So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
Since the emails came to light, Wasserman’s eponymous sports marketing and talent management company has lost several clients, including the singers Chappell Roan and Orville Peck and the former soccer player Abby Wambach.
Wasserman apologized for what he called his “past personal mistakes” in a message to his staff last week obtained by ABC News through his spokesperson.
“Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals,” he said. “It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending. And I’m heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.”
Wasserman said in his message to his staff that he believes he has become a “distraction” and has started the process to sell his company while he devotes his “full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city.”
The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week that it “takes allegations of misconduct seriously” and conducted a review of Wasserman’s past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell with the help of outside counsel.
“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, citing the 2002 flight to Africa on Epstein’s plane and the 2003 emails with Maxwell.
“The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,” the board said.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley speaks with ABC News, Dec. 19, 2025. ABC News
(BOSTON, Mass.) — It was Thursday morning when investigators definitively determined the same individual opened fire on a study group at Brown University and, two days later, murdered an MIT professor — raising fears among law enforcement officials that the killer may have had other intended targets, according to the top federal law enforcement official in Boston.
“We had no idea if he had a hit list and these were just the first two stops on his tour,” Leah Foley, the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told ABC News on Friday.
Foley said that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in the New Hampshire storage unit with two 9mm Glock firearms equipped with green laser sights, five magazines with nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and nearly $900 in cash. In his car, investigators said they found more ammunition and body armor.
“This was highly premeditated and he was definitely equipped for the mission that he sought out to do,” Foley said.
Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
On Friday, an autopsy was underway to determine how long the suspect had been dead by the time his body was found. Ballistics tests and DNA tests were underway.
Investigators were also searching through the contents of three USB thumb drives found in the suspect’s car to see if they contained clues about a motive. It is unclear at this time if the suspect had any other potential targets, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Foley said investigators believe Brown University and the MIT professor — Nuno F.G. Loureiro — were intentional targets, but they do not know why.
“I don’t know that even if he had explained why, that that would be an answer that is satisfactory to anyone,” Foley said. “He was evil.”
The possibility that the killer could have struck again infused the manhunt with new urgency. Federal agents fanned out across four New England states and posted up at airports in Boston and Hartford.
“We had no idea if he was going to act again in New England or try to leave New England,” Foley said.
Neves Valente had already switched license plates once, according to authorities. In the car, investigators said they found another expired plate.
The suspect was a former Brown graduate student who attended the school some 25 years ago, school officials said. He had enrolled as a Ph.D student in Brown’s physics program in 2000 and attended for less than a year, before going on a leave of absence and then withdrawing.
Neves Valente and Loureiro were both Portuguese nationals and had attended the same physics engineering program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the school confirmed to ABC News.
(SAN ANTONIO) — Newly obtained dashboard camera video may show a Texas teenage girl right when she went missing on Christmas Eve, authorities said.
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, has been missing since Wednesday morning, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators previously released security footage showing a person they said they believe to be Mendoza Olmos searching her car in her driveway around 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Now, investigators have a dash cam video from someone who was driving to work on Wednesday morning and passed a woman walking by herself, and that person may be Mendoza Olmos, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at a news conference on Monday.
The video was taken a few blocks from her home, he said.
The sheriff added that he couldn’t say with 100% certainty that Mendoza Olmos was in the video, but he said the clothing description matches up.
Salazar said authorities are releasing that footage “in hopes that somebody may have collected similar video.”
“This was the best direction of flight that we were able to develop,” he said.
Salazar told ABC News on Sunday that sheriff’s deputies and volunteers have been searching around the clock for Mendoza Olmos.
“Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a morning walk; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable period of time,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Multiple agencies have joined the search, including the FBI, which is providing technical assistance, and the Department of Homeland Security, which is monitoring border crossings and international travel, Salazar said.
“We definitely don’t want to miss anything,” Salazar said. “… We’re also not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.”
Salazar confirmed that Mendoza Olmos was not detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite her being a U.S. citizen.
“That was a personal concern. So, I had it checked to make sure that there were no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility. That is something we needed to check,” Salazar said.
The only items she took with her were her car keys and possibly her driver’s license, authorities said.
Salazar noted that it was unusual for Mendoza Olmos to leave her phone at home, saying she leads an active lifestyle and it’s “highly unusual” that she hasn’t returned.
“That’s why we’re working basically around the clock on this case,” Salazar said.
He said Mendoza Olmos recently went through a romantic breakup, but authorities said the breakup was mutual and don’t suspect anything “nefarious” was involved, saying everyone close to her is cooperating.
While Salazar would not disclose some details of Mendoza Olmos’s disappearance, he said there was enough information to suggest she is in “imminent danger.”
Salazar requested help from the community in the search, asking neighbors of Mendoza Olmos to check their surveillance cameras for any footage of the teenagers.
She was last seen wearing a baby-blue and black hoodie, baby-blue pajama bottoms and white shoes. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office at (210)335-6000 or the BCSO Missing Persons Unit via missingpersons@bexar.org.
Members of law enforcement, including the U.S. Secret Service and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, respond to a shooting near the White House on November 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As investigators continue to probe what motivated a man to allegedly gun down two West Virginia National Guard members, killing one just blocks from the White House, officials said on Monday that the victim who survived the attack was making positive progress.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old married father of five from Bellingham, Washington, allegedly drove cross-country to commit the Thanksgiving eve shooting in the heart of the nation’s capital, officials said.
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, members of the West Virginia National Guard were “ambushed” while conducting “high visibility patrols” at the time of the attack, according to law enforcement officials. The 20-year-old Beckstrom was killed while the 24-year-old Wolfe was critically injured, authorities said.
During a news conference on Monday afternoon, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Wolfe is in serious condition and is “fighting for his life.”
Morrisey revealed “some positive news” about Wolfe’s condition, saying that when a nurse asked him to give a thumbs up if he could hear, “he did respond.”
“We were told that he also wiggled his toes,” Morrisey said. “So, we take that as a positive sign.”
Passing on a message from Wolfe’s mother, Melody, Morrisey said, “She’s been asking people across the country to pray for her son and those prayers are working.”
Morrisey said that over the weekend, he attended several vigils in West Virginia for the National Guard Members who were attacked.
“People were talking so eloquently about Sarah, who by all accounts is an amazing woman who lifted up people around her with a smile,” Morrisey said. “And from talking to Sarah’s parents and people in the unit, everyone had nothing but incredible things to say about Sarah.”
The suspected gunman is facing one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. It is unclear when those charges will be unsealed.
“There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
Lakanwal, who was shot by a National Guard member who responded to the shooting, remained hospitalized on Monday, officials said.
Profile of the suspect emerges
A profile of the suspect, an Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, is emerging. The investigation indicates he was under financial stress and in the throes of a possible mental health crisis, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Investigators are also looking into whether the recent death of an Afghan commander whom Lakanwal worked with and revered might have sent him spiraling into depression, multiple sources told ABC News.
The suspect previously worked with the U.S. government as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, “which ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” Ratcliffe said.
In Afghanistan, the suspect was involved with the Zero Unit, working closely with the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The suspect was a trusted member of that team, which went after U.S. counterterrorism targets, according to sources.
Lakanwal came to the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration, law enforcement sources said. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April, under the Trump administration, according to the sources.
The suspect allegedly had been unable to find a job because he had an expired work permit, according to a source familiar with the suspect’s circumstances.
Lakanwal, who had become more isolated in the past few months and was growing desperate, could not pay rent or food and was relying on others, the source added.
When asked Thursday about when the suspect was granted asylum, FBI Director Kash Patel did not answer, instead referring to a statement from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
He was likely vetted before being granted asylum this year. According to Noem, there have been 8,000 such individuals since Trump took office. Noem and Patel have both suggested in recent congressional testimony that the administration had carefully scrutinized all of them.
“During my tenure, we are going through the databases to make sure that no known or suspected terrorists enter this country to harm our nation,” Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.
During an interview on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Noem said, “Since he’s been here, we believe he could have been radicalized in his home community, his home state.”
“As we continue to talk with his family and his contacts, more details will be revealed and we’ll release those when it’s appropriate,” Noem said.
Potential act of international terrorism
Sources said the FBI is currently investigating the shooting as a potential act of international terrorism, suggesting authorities are trying to determine if it may have been inspired by an international terrorist organization.
But thus far, authorities have not publicly released any specific evidence tying Lakanwal to a terrorist organization and no terror charges have been filed.
The investigation into the deadly shooting is still in its early phases.
FBI Director Kash Patel said officials are looking into whether the suspect had any associates overseas.
Drove across the country to the nation’s capital
Officials said the suspect drove from his residence in Washington state to the nation’s capital prior to the shooting.
“Somebody drove across the country to Washington, D.C., to attack America,” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference last week.
A search warrant was conducted at the suspect’s home in Bellingham, Washington, where officials found “numerous electronic devices,” Patel said.
Patel added that this is a “coast-to-coast investigation.” Officials are interviewing individuals at the suspect’s home and in San Diego, where the alleged shooter has ties, Patel said.
In addition to his wife and children, sources familiar with the investigation said the suspect has a brother in the United States.
Guardsmen were ambushed by the suspect
Pirro said the gunman, who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style,” struck one of the victims, leaned over and shot the individual again. The suspect then shot the other Guard member “several times.”
The weapon used in the shooting was a .357 Smith &Wesson revolver, officials said.
The suspect allegedly got shot by a third member of the National Guard and then was subdued, but officials did not say how many shots were fired at or by the suspect.
In an address on Wednesday night, Trump confirmed that the suspected gunman is believed to have entered the U.S. from Afghanistan.
“It was a crime against our entire nation,” he said. “It was a crime against humanity.”
Trump said the shooting “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation” and the U.S. “must now reexamine every single alien from Afghanistan who has entered our country under Biden and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”
The Guard members, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, were conducting “high visibility patrols” at the time of the attack, according to law enforcement officials.
A motive has yet to be determined; however, Bowser said the individual “appeared to target” the Guard members.
“What we know is that this is a targeted shooting and one individual appeared to target these guardsmen,” according to Bowser.
Patel said the case is being carried out as an attack on a federal law enforcement officer, adding that the victims are “heroes.”
The National Guard was deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s federal takeover of the city in August. There are 2,188 National Guard personnel assigned to D.C., according to the most recent update.
ABC News’ Cindy Smith and Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.
