Chris Ruddy is Newsmax. He is the CEO. If Newsmax says they got the story from NPR, then the evidence says they (Ruddy and Newsman) got the story from NPR.
It’s not complicated. All the Newsmax story said was that NPR had two sources. It doesn’t identify the sources. That is not inconsistent with Ruddy being one of the sources. In fact, he WAS one of the sources. If you read my links you will see that NPR only had two sources: Ruddy and an unnamed official.