Olivia Nuzzi accused her former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, of taking “damaging information” to her employer, New York magazine, and of distributing materials to the media that she said she believed to be doctored.
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Olivia Nuzzi, Reporter Linked to R.F.K. Jr., Accuses Ex-Fiancé of Harassment

Her former fiancé, the Politico reporter Ryan Lizza, has vehemently denied the allegation, which she filed in a court complaint and to the F.B.I.

by · NY Times

Olivia Nuzzi, the star political writer for New York magazine who was placed on leave after she disclosed her personal relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has accused her former fiancé of a campaign of harassment and blackmail, according to court filings.

In a complaint filed in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Ms. Nuzzi accused the former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, a top political reporter at Politico, of hacking her devices and stealing a device to surveil her and collect materials to pressure her back into a relationship with him.

She accused Mr. Lizza of bringing “damaging information” to the attention of her employer and of distributing materials to the media that she said she believed to be doctored.

She also claimed in the complaint that Mr. Lizza had threatened her with violence to coerce her into assuming his financial responsibility in a joint book contract, and “explicitly threatened to make public personal information about me to destroy my life, career and reputation — a threat he has since carried out.”

On Tuesday, the court granted Ms. Nuzzi a temporary protection order against Mr. Lizza, which requires him to have no contact with Ms. Nuzzi, and ordered him to “immediately cease using any illegally obtained information.” The protective order was first reported by CNN.

Mr. Lizza said the allegations against him were not true. “I am saddened that my ex-fiancée would resort to making a series of false accusations against me as a way to divert attention from her own personal and professional failings,” he said. “I emphatically deny these allegations, and I will defend myself against them vigorously and successfully.”

Ms. Nuzzi told The New York Times that she had also made similar accusations to the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week. The F.B.I. declined to comment.

On Tuesday night, a Politico spokesman said Politico and Mr. Lizza had “mutually agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest for him to step back and take a leave of absence” while an internal investigation is conducted.

Ms. Nuzzi’s relationship with Mr. Kennedy, whom she profiled last year when he was running for president, came to light in September after the editor of New York magazine asked her about it. In a statement at the time, Ms. Nuzzi said that the relationship had at times “turned personal” but that it had not been physical. Mr. Kennedy ended his independent run for president in August and has since endorsed former President Donald J. Trump.

Speculation has swirled in media circles about how the editor, David Haskell, found out about the relationship, which was then reported by Oliver Darcy in his newsletter, Status.

New York magazine placed Ms. Nuzzi on leave and said in a statement that although an initial review of her reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign had found “no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias,” it would undertake a third-party review.

A representative for Mr. Kennedy said in a statement last month that he had “only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”

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