Politico reporter Ryan Lizza — the former fiancé of New York Magazine political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, who was involved in a sexting scandal with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — will remain at the publication, though he will no longer edit its high-profile newsletter.
Lizza announced that he will be “returning to my long-form magazine roots” by contributing more lengthy pieces for the online publication.
“I’ll remain Politico’s Chief Washington Correspondent but with a focus on in-depth features, profiles, and interview,” Lizza wrote on his X account on Monday.
Lizza, 50, was in charge of the Playbook newsletter before he was placed on leave last October after the 32-year-old Nuzzi accused him of blackmail and harassment.
Politico denied that the shakeup was connected to the Nuzzi-Kennedy saga.
“For more than a decade now, there has been a new stewardship of Playbook with a change of Administration. A new Playbook for a new Washington,” a Politico spokesperson told Daily Beast.
The Playbook newsletter will now be helmed by Jack Blanchard, Politico’s veteran UK reporter, according to the Daily Beast.
John Harris, Politico editor-in-chief, revealed that Lizza will put a “special emphasis on contributing to POLITICO Magazine” going forward.
The Post has sought comment from Politico and Lizza, a former political analyst for CNN whose byline has appeared in publications such as New Yorker and New Republic.
Nuzzi had accused Lizza of hacking into her personal devices and attempting to coerce her into rekindling their relationship by threatening to release personal information. Lizza has denied these allegations.
The controversy began when Nuzzi, then a correspondent for New York Magazine, was reported to have engaged in a months-long, personal relationship with Kennedy, 70, while covering his independent presidential campaign.
Upon disclosure of the relationship in September, New York Magazine placed Nuzzi on leave and initiated an external review of her work.
A subsequent investigation conducted by the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine found no inaccuracies or evidence of bias in her reporting.
Nonetheless, the magazine and Nuzzi mutually agreed to part ways, citing concerns over journalistic ethics and the appearance of a conflict of interest.
David Haskell, New York editor-in-chief, said Nuzzi would not have been assigned to cover Kennedy’s campaign had the publication been aware of the relationship.
The scandal led to the dissolution of Nuzzi’s engagement to Lizza, who is said to have discovered her relationship with Kennedy.
Nuzzi filed a protective order against Lizza, accusing him of hacking and blackmail.
In his response, Lizza alleged that he discovered, “Nuzzi had been cheating on me with a married man [RFK Jr.] for almost a year.”
“She admitted the affair and over the course of weeks of conversations she confided how she fell into what she described as a ‘toxic’ ‘unhealthy’ ‘stupid’ ‘psychotic’ ‘crazy’ ‘indefensible’ relationship with a 70-year-old ‘sex addict’ who told her he wanted to ‘possess,’ ‘control,’ and ‘impregnate’ her,” he claims in court papers seen by Page Six.
Nuzzi previously accused Lizza of having “hacked” her devices for “the purpose of stalking and surveilling me and to collect materials to employ as blackmail to intimidate me back into a relationship, and to inflict public ridicule and humiliation as well as professional damage as punishment when I would not return to the relationship.”
She has also claimed he, “utilized a third party or anonymous channel,” to inform her employer about the affair.
Lizza has fervently denied the allegations — and said that he “pleaded with her to go to her editors and disclose her affair before they found out about it on their own.”
In November, Nuzzi withdrew her petition for the protective order, with her attorney stating that she wished to move on from the matter.
Kennedy, who has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, denied having a relationship with Nuzzi.
A statement from Kennedy read that he “only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
Nuzzi acknowledged maintaining communications with Kennedy that were personal in nature though she insisted that the relationship was never physical.
She expressed regret for not disclosing the interaction earlier to her bosses at New York.
“The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict,” Nuzzi said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
