Big Unanswered Question in Olivia Nuzzi, Ryan Lizza, RFK Jr. Scandal

Olivia Nuzzi lost her job at New York Magazine due to an undisclosed affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.which was constantly the subject of her reports. The news about this case became known on September 19.

On Sept. 30, Nuzzi filed an emergency lawsuit in Washington, D.C. Superior Court. She claimed that Ryan Lisa, her ex-fiancé and fellow star reporter (for Politico), “outright threatened to release personal information about me (and this affair) in order to destroy my life, career and reputation—a threat he later followed through on.”

Lisa responded on Oct. 11 in her own court filing: “Her claim that (me) tried to blackmail her back into our relationship is a shameful lie that contradicts the most basic facts.” Lisa is on leave from Playbook while they investigate whether his knowledge of Nuzzi’s affair (since mid-August) affected his reporting for them.

Harry Lambert joins Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee in the latest edition The Daily Beast Podcast to overcome the scandal that rocked DC and led to the apparent breakup of one of its most prestigious couples.

Harry: The fact is that this story consists of three parts.

There is a history of their respective journalistic careers: they came from adverse backgrounds and scaled the height of the DC carriers. Then there’s the catalyst that drove them apart, the RFK Jr. affair.

And then there’s what I think is the most interesting issue of all that’s relatively unaddressed, and that’s the court documents they’ve both now filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. These documents present two completely different pictures of this whole affair.

Olivia Nuzzi’s account was pretty good reported. She describes Ryan Lizza as a jealous and abusive ex who blackmailed her or tried to blackmail her into staying with him when he found out about RFK Jr.’s affair. It received all the media attention for two weeks after the claims were filed and made public on September 30.

Lisa then curtly refused, but he didn’t go into detail – until last week, when he filed a counterclaim. And his counterclaim offered an entirely different archetype: Instead of a jealous ex, he described himself as an innocent man who had been framed, who had been wronged by his ex-fiancé.

Joanna: Set up for what?

Harry: Well, he says he was framed primarily for spreading the news about the affair. Nuzzi claims that it was Lisa who leaked it to the media. He says that this is absolutely not true.

He says he is accused of threatening her with physical violence, which she said in her statement. He says he never did. And he says he’s accused of stealing her devices and taking material from her phone.

Joanna: Probably, these are (candid) texts that she exchanged with RFK Jr. in the framework of this “digital” case.

Harry: right. But the most interesting thing about this is the big difference between the applications.

Lisa has a lot of details, Nuzza doesn’t. Lisa is full of direct quotes, Nuzzi is not.

Joanna: Direct quotes from where?

Harry: Well, in theory – we don’t know because we can’t see the actual evidence – but in theory from the texts Nuzzi sent him.

The timeline Lisa describes is that after he found out about the affair in mid-August, they tried to stay together for a month. And Nuzzi really wanted to stay with him, which is not at all what she said in her application.

Lisa says that in the end he didn’t want to stay with her, and by mid-September they had split up. And just a few days later, the story came out.

And then, to his great shock and astonishment, Nuzzi accused him in this unusual way of this D.C. submission to court.

This has yet to be resolved, but I think it is very important to point out that you can file anything in court. You don’t need to reach any level of evidence to do this. And it’s a great way to embarrass someone, frankly. And Lisa may have been shamed.

He certainly thinks so, and was ready to tell the judge why he was falsely accused last week, but the judge adjourned the hearing until November 19.

Joanna: Meanwhile, he was suspended from working at Politico.

Harry: yes It is important to say that Nuzzi says that his claims are incorrect. So you have two sides fighting each other. But I think the most interesting thing about talking to Nuzzi’s camp about this is that I’m not sure they’re going to offer a point-by-point rebuttal of Lisa’s claims like he did to the allegations in her statement.

It seems from her point of view, she has already accomplished her goals: Lisa is now here in the dirt, with her and RFK Jr., that’s it.

But I think it could be a very unfortunate situation because there is some truth to it. Both statements cannot be true. Someone was very offended here.

Listen to the full Daily Beast podcast here.