The drama between journalists Ryan Lizza and Olivia Nuzzo — who had a digital affair with RFK, Jr., that included having sex over Facetime — continues, as Lizza has responded to allegations he blackmailed his ex-fiancée.
Recall that Nuzzi claims that Lizza — to whom she became engaged in 2022 — was involved in a campaign of harassment and blackmail against her. She claims that she spoke to the FBI about Lizza and alleged that he stole one device and hacked others in order to gather information to compel her to stay in a relationship with him. She also suggests that it was Lizza who informed her boss, David Haskell, at New York Magazine about her affair with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Ryan Lizza, the Chief Washington Correspondent for Politico, denies those claims, providing fresh details about Nuzzi’s year-long affair with Kennedy, a relationship she described to him as “toxic” and marked by a severe power imbalance.
Lizza’s court statement reveals that he found out about the affair in August, only days before the Democratic National Convention. He claims Nuzzi confided in him about the affair, calling it “unhealthy” and “psychotic” and that Kennedy, 70, spoke of wanting to “possess, control, and impregnate” Nuzzi.
Lizza further claims that he did not hack into her devices. Much of the information regarding the affair came directly from Nuzzi, who confided the details of the affair as she allegedly attempted to maintain their relationship.
As for who informed the media about the affair, Lizza asserts it wasn’t him, even noting that he advised Nuzzi to preemptively disclose the relationship to her editors. “I was also not the source for the reporter who first broke the news of Ms. Nuzzi’s affair,” Lizza writes in his response, referring to Oliver Darcy. “Ms. Nuzzi knows this because the reporter told her this.”
He claims he encouraged her to remove potentially compromising material from her reporting, which she did. He also claims that he did not threaten violence against her when she refused to share the responsibility for refunding the advance for an aborted book they were meant to co-author.
“I did tell Ms. Nuzzi that I thought she should be responsible for paying back our book advance since this is the second presidential cycle in a row where Ms. Nuzzi’s personal indiscretions have sabotaged our book project.” I am not familiar with the personal indiscretions from a previous presidential cycle.
Because everyone is throwing mud while Bobby Kennedy apparently sits back and watches the show, the scandal has also surfaced details about Lizza, whose family history includes connections to public scandal; multiple relatives were implicated in federal cases involving bid-rigging, and alleged ties to the mob because evidently no one in a position of power can be f**king normal.
Source: The Daily Beast