Donald Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski apparently had second thoughts about sharing scandalous claims involving his boss’ new ally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his alleged romantic relationship with a reporter.
News broke Thursday that New York magazine’s 31-year-old Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, had been placed on leave over what the publication called a “personal relationship” with one of her former reporting subjects. Media reporter Oliver Darcy identified the subject as 70-year-old Kennedy, the former presidential candidate who ended his own bid for the White House to support Trump instead.
Nuzzi told The Daily Beast that the relationship was “never physical” but said it “should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict.”
Kennedy, who is married to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines, has yet to publicly comment on the allegations, though a representative told Darcy’s Status newsletter that Kennedy and Nuzzi’s relationship was not romantic, adding that Kennedy only met Nuzzi “once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
Trump aide Lewandowski shared a link to Darcy’s reporting on X late Thursday before deleting the post a couple of hours later, according to Mediaite. It’s not clear if the removal was ordered by his Trump campaign colleagues in light of Kennedy’s high-profile support for the Republican ticket or if Lewandowski took it down of his own volition.
Lewandowski has history with Nuzzi. In 2018, he was reportedly considering legal action against Nuzzi after she said she’d briefly entered his home. Lewandowski also suggested she might have been responsible for the disappearance of a photo album—Nuzzi denied stealing anything but admitted to taking a photo in the property.
Lewandowski’s recent return to Trump’s orbit has baffled some of the Republican nominee’s other allies, according to The New York Times. The notoriously ill-tempered aide made a comeback in Trump’s inner circle after initially being fired by the Trump campaign in 2016, only to be drummed out a second time in 2021 amid allegations that he’d made inappropriate sexual advances on a GOP donor.
“I just like him,” Trump told Nuzzi earlier this month when she asked why he’d brought Lewandowski back into the fold. “Corey’s a character.”
Nuzzi worked for The Daily Beast between 2013 and 2017. In a statement, New York magazine did not name Kennedy but said Nuzzi “engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.”
The outlet said the relationship breached its editorial standards and Nuzzi would not have been left to continue covering the campaign if “the magazine been aware of this relationship.”
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