Lawyers for Ryan Lizza have filed court papers opposing ex-fiancée Olivia Nuzzi’s motion to seal their court fight, calling it “an unfair attempt to silence Mr. Lizza from telling his side of the story,” according to documents obtained by the Daily Beast.
The filing is the latest twist in a drama which has electrified the world of politics and media since the revelation that Nuzzi, New York Magazine’s then Washington correspondent, had a “digital” affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while she was engaged to Lizza, himself the joint author of Politico’s Playbook newsletter, the daily bible of the D.C. elite.
Nuzzi filed an extraordinary set of explosive claims against Lizza in court on Sept. 29—accusing him of attempting to blackmail her into staying with him after he found out about her affair with RFK Jr., who is married to third wife Cheryl Hines.
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Nuzzi was granted an ex parte temporary Civil Protective Order—an order made by the court without any adjudication of Nuzzi’s claims. Lizza was not even aware of the filing until CNN provided him with a copy of the order, his lawyers claimed today in their new filing to D.C. Superior Court.
“Mr Lizza wants his facts to be on the public record, has nothing to hide, and respectfully requests that this Court deny Ms. Nuzzi’s motion to seal,” the papers state.
“One would think that as an experienced journalist, Ms. Nuzzi would share this Court and Mr. Lizza’s commitment to the press’s access rights to information,” Mr Lizza’s lawyer, Simon Latcovich, adds.
The crucial point Lizza’s lawyers make is that Nuzzi made no attempt to seal coverage of the case for two weeks after her filing on Sept. 29. She only did so after Lizza lodged his counter-filing on Oct. 11, which was first reported exclusively by the Beast.
“Mr. Lizza’s answer to the Petition should be just as public as her [Nuzzi’s] self-serving and self-publicized allegations,” Lizza’s lawyers argue.
“The Petition was available on the public docket for a full two weeks [after Sept. 29]. Yet, Ms. Nuzzi did not move to seal. To the contrary, she affirmatively stoked press coverage,” the filing claims.
“Then, mere hours after Ms. Nuzzi’s counsel received Mr. Lizza’s Answer and the day before the public hearing on her Petition, Ms. Nuzzi suddenly moved to seal everything.”
“Ms. Nuzzi cannot provide and discuss her Petition and its allegations with news organizations and then seek to seal the very record she created so as to silence Mr. Lizza in this litigation.”
Lizza is being represented in the fight for his name by both Latcovich, who filed the documents, and by famed D.C. dealmaker and counsel Bob Barnett. They are each partners at Williams & Connolly, the boutique litigation firm hired by Bill Clinton to represent him in his impeachment trial.
Nuzzi—who New York Magazine severed ties with last week—is being represented by the noted D.C. employment lawyer Air Wilkenfeld.
Wilkenfeld represented Matt Lauer’s primary accuser when she levelled an accusation of sexual harassment against the former NBC host in 2016 which cost Lauer his job. (Another client of Wilkenfeld’s accused Tom Brokaw, less consequentially, of unwanted sexual advances in 2018.)
Nuzzi was initially represented by a Maryland-based personal injury lawyer from the firm Jezic & Moysz when she first filed for a protective order against Lizza. Her recent hiring of Wilkenfeld represents a significant step up in legal firepower—and expense.
Commencement rates at Lescht, Wilkenfeld’s firm, can reach around $5,000, with a lawyer of Wilkenfeld’s stature costing around $800 an hour thereafter.
“If Ms. Nuzzi truly was concerned about her identity and her allegations being made public,” Lizza’s lawyers conclude in their filing to Judge Staples, “she had almost two weeks to seek relief from this Court.”
“The fact that she only moved to shield these proceedings from the public record after Mr. Lizza filed his Answer refuting her allegations and in advance of a public hearing reveals her true motivations.”
The pair are set to meet in court on Nov. 19.
Additional reporting by Corbin Bolies.
