Olivia Nuzzi put on leave by New York Magazine over alleged relationship with RFK Jr.: NPR

A star New York Magazine A political reporter has been placed on leave after admitting to a personal relationship with a person reportedly believed to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The magazine he said in a statement on Thursday that Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi violated the network's standards on conflicts of interest and disclosures by entering into a relationship with a “former interviewee relevant to the 2024 campaign” while covering the election.

“If the magazine had known about this relationship, it would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” it said.

New York Magazine Editor-in-chief David Haskell said in a note to staff Friday morning that editors learned of the relationship “a few days ago” and immediately “removed it from the 2024 campaign.”

He said an internal review of Nuzzi's published work since December found “neither inaccuracies nor evidence of bias” that required corrections. The magazine is hiring an unnamed independent third party to more thoroughly review its 2024 stories, which Haskell said “will influence our final disciplinary decision.”

“As I made clear to Olivia, she had created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest and, by choosing not to disclose this to her editors, had violated our policies and potentially damaged the trust of our readers,” Haskell wrote.

Nuzzi, 31, has been covering political figures and presidential campaigns since joining the magazine's editorial team in 2017.

She is known for her in-depth reporting, in which she sometimes becomes part of the story herself – as in a 2019 story about Texting with Rudy Giuliani and a Incident 2018 in which she entered the office of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski without permission.

Her recent stories include July piece about a democratic “conspiracy of silence to protect” then-candidate President Biden and a Conversation with former President Donald Trump that was one of the Cover stories last week. These have now been updated with a link to the magazine's Thursday note at the top of the page.

Nuzzi also wrote a long Profile of Kennedy in November 2023 – when he was running for president as an independent – ​​in which she recounts accompanying him on a hike with his dogs and driving around with them in a battered minivan (“the death machine smells so bad I thought I was going to pass out in the passenger seat after about 15 seconds”).

Oliver Darcy's media newsletter statuswhich first reported Nuzzi News on Thursday quoted an unnamed source as saying the alleged relationship only began after that profile was published. Nuzzi told the magazine the relationship began in December 2023 – “after we published her November profile” – and ended around the end of August, Haskell wrote in his internal email.

Nuzzi said in a statement provided to several media outlets, including CNN and the New York Timesthat “earlier this year, the nature of the communication between me and a former person from the reporting became personal.”

She said she had neither reported directly on the issue nor used it as a source at the time.

“The relationship was never physical, but it should have been disclosed to avoid the appearance of a conflict,” Nuzzi added. “I deeply regret not having done so immediately and apologize to those I have disappointed, especially my colleagues at new York.”

She did not name the source, but several media outlets, including Status, named Kennedy.

Kennedy, 70, has not commented directly on the reports. However, a spokesman for the politician, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines, told CNN and NBC News that he “met Olivia Nuzzi only once in his life for an interview she requested that resulted in a defamatory article.”

kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump in August. Shortly thereafter, Trump appointed Kennedy as his Presidential Transition Team.

Kennedy, who became known as an environmental advocate and anti-vaccination campaigner, ran a third-party campaign dominated by a series of startling personal revelations: Worm ate part of his brain; he was the person who dumped a dead bear in Central Park 10 years ago; he did not eat dog, as reports suggested, but a goat.

Most recently, Kennedy said on stage last week during his campaign appearance for Trump in Arizona that a federal agency was investigating him for allegedly take home the head of a dead whale two decades ago. Kennedy's daughter Kick reported the incident in 2012 City and country interview which have resurfaced in recent weeks.

According to AP, Kennedy declined to comment on the investigation when asked by reporters at the event, saying the mainstream media only wanted to talk to him about “gossipy nonsense.”