Olivia Nuzzi, Reporter in RFK Jr. Scandal, Accuses Her Ex-Fiancé of Leaking Data

Olivia Nuzzi, the reporter who has made headlines for her alleged “private relationship” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claims her ex-fiancé had a task in leaking the allegations.

In response to CNN, Nuzzi, 31, claimed in a court docket submitting in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court docket this week that her former fiancé Ryan Lizza, who’s the Chief Washington Correspondent for Politico and co-author of the the positioning’s Playbook column, “explicitly threatened to make public private details about me to destroy my life, profession, and fame.”

Nuzzi alleged that Lizza made the risk in mid-August — almost 4 weeks earlier than her employer, New York journal, introduced that she had been positioned on depart resulting from her “private relationship with a former topic related to the 2024 marketing campaign whereas she was reporting on the marketing campaign.”

Whereas it’s not 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 referred to as “the matter” in court docket information, per CNN.

In response to the outlet, a decide accepted Nuzzi’s requests to briefly 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 monetary accountability” for a joint e-book 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 sequence of false accusations towards me as a technique to divert consideration from her personal private {and professional} failings,” Lizza mentioned.

“I emphatically deny these allegations and I’ll defend myself towards them vigorously and efficiently,” his assertion continued.

Lizza has not responded to the allegations in court docket but, per CNN. He can have a possibility to look earlier than the decide in the course of the subsequent scheduled listening to on Oct. 15.

Nuzzi advised the New York Instances she additionally filed a grievance with the FBI with related allegations. The FBI declined to remark to PEOPLE.

In a be aware 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 depart of absence in the course of 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 depart of absence whereas an investigation is carried out,” 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 information of the incident advised 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 Information on Friday, Sept. 20: “I by no means touch upon these type of tales.”

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His spouse, Cheryl Hines, has additionally not addressed the problem, however she was noticed sporting a band on her ring finger throughout Paris Trend Week on Thursday, Sept. 26.