Olivia Nuzzi, the reporter who has made headlines for her alleged “personal relationship” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claims her ex-fiancé had a job in leaking the allegations.
In keeping with CNN, Nuzzi, 31, claimed in a court docket submitting in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Courtroom this week that her former fiancé Ryan Lizza, who’s the Chief Washington Correspondent for Politico and co-author of the the location’s Playbook column, “explicitly threatened to make public private details about me to destroy my life, profession, and popularity.”
Nuzzi alleged that Lizza made the risk in mid-August — practically 4 weeks earlier than her employer, New York magazine, introduced that she had been positioned on go away as a consequence of her “private relationship with a former topic related to the 2024 marketing campaign whereas she was reporting on the marketing campaign.”
Whereas it isn’t clear when Nuzzi and Lizza’s engagement got here to an finish, Nuzzi claims that Lizza’s alleged harassment dates again to July and was achieved to blackmail her again right into a relationship with him, CNN reported.
Nuzzi claimed that Lizza stole a private digital system from her to anonymously disclose some personal details about her to the media and tipped off New York journal about her alleged “private relationship” with Kennedy, 70, which she known as “the matter” in court docket data, per CNN.
In keeping with the outlet, a choose authorised Nuzzi’s requests to quickly bar Lizza from contacting her and have police accompany her when she makes an attempt to get her possessions again from him.
Per the court docket submitting, Nuzzi claimed that Lizza allegedly threatened her with violence “to imagine his share of economic duty” for a joint guide contract that they had. PEOPLE reached out to Nuzzi however didn’t instantly hear again.
In an announcement shared with PEOPLE, Lizza denied Nizzi’s accusations. “I’m saddened that my ex-fiancée would resort to creating a collection of false accusations in opposition to me as a strategy to divert consideration from her personal private {and professional} failings,” Lizza mentioned.
“I emphatically deny these allegations and I’ll defend myself in opposition to them vigorously and efficiently,” his assertion continued.
Lizza has not responded to the allegations in court docket but, per CNN. He may have a chance to seem earlier than the choose through the subsequent scheduled listening to on Oct. 15.
Nuzzi instructed the New York Times she additionally filed a criticism with the FBI with related allegations. The FBI declined to remark to PEOPLE.
In a note to readers, Lizza wrote that he and his editors had agreed he wouldn’t cowl any Kennedy-related information for Politico.
On Tuesday night time, Lizza and Politico agreed that he would take a go away of absence through the investigation. “POLITICO and Ryan Lizza have mutually agreed that it’s in everybody’s finest curiosity for him to step again and take a go away of absence whereas an investigation is performed,” learn an announcement from the outlet.
Though Kennedy was not named within the lawsuit or New York journal’s assertion about Nuzzi, a supply with data of the incident instructed CNN that Nuzzi was linked to Kennedy.
Nuzzi shared in a earlier assertion to PEOPLE that though “the character of some communication” between herself and “a former reporting topic turned private,” it was by no means “bodily.”
Kennedy has not spoken out in regards to the matter, sharing in an interview with Fox News on Friday, Sept. 20: “I never comment on those kind of stories.”
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His spouse, Cheryl Hines, has additionally not addressed the difficulty, however she was spotted wearing a band on her ring finger throughout Paris Trend Week on Thursday, Sept. 26.