Olivia Nuzzi Out at New York Mag After RJK Jr. Relationship

Olivia Nuzzi and New York Magazine have officially parted ways.

The political correspondent’s exit from the publication comes after she acknowledged having had a “personal relationship” with “a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign,” who has been identified as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. After Nuzzi revealed her relationship with RFK Jr., New York mag had placed her on temporary leave.

Now Nuzzi is out. In a statement on Monday, Vox Media-owned New York Magazine said it had enlisted law firm Davis Wright Tremaine to review Nuzzi’s work during the 2024 campaign. “They reached the same conclusion as the magazine’s initial internal review of her published work, finding no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias,” the magazine said. “Nevertheless, the magazine and Nuzzi agreed that the best course forward is to part ways. Nuzzi is a uniquely talented writer and we have been proud to publish her work over her nearly eight years as our Washington Correspondent. We wish her the best.”

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Nuzzi had penned a profile of RFK Jr., who until recently had been running as a third-party candidate for U.S. president, which was published by New York Magazine in November 2023. That story was headlined “The Mind-Bending Politics of RFK Jr.’s Spoiler Campaign,” with a deck that read: “He’s a conservative. He’s a liberal. And he could turn the presidential race upside down.” Nuzzi’s relationship with RFK Jr. allegedly had not commenced prior to that point.

In July 2024, New York published an article by Nuzzi titled “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden,” which, according to the author, detailed “stories from Democratic officials, activists, and donors who came away from interactions with Joe Biden disturbed by what they had seen.” Later that month, President Biden ended his reelection campaign and VP Kamala Harris stepped up as the Democratic presidential candidate.

In its statement last month, New York Magazine said that if it had “been aware of this relationship, [Nuzzi] would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign” and said, “We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.”

Ari Wilkenfeld, an attorney at Alan Lescht & Associates representing Nuzzi, said in a statement Monday: “Ms. Nuzzi is gratified though not surprised that two different investigations have determined that her reporting on the 2024 campaign was sound and that she did nothing wrong. For nearly eight years, she consistently produced critically celebrated and hugely popular journalism in her capacity as the Washington Correspondent for New York Magazine. She is grateful for the editors, fact checkers and artists with whom she worked and to the readers who have supported her with their time, subscriptions and engagement. She looks forward to the next chapter of her career.”

In a previous statement, Nuzzi had said, “Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal. During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source.” Nuzzi said that the relationship was “never physical,” but that it “should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict.”