Advertisement

Jeffrey Toobin fired by the New Yorker after Zoom scandal, but no word on CNN status

Jeffrey Toobin in 2016
Jeffrey Toobin, shown in 2016, was fired Wednesday by the New Yorker.
(Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)
Share

Reporter Jeffrey Toobin has been relieved of duty by the New Yorker following an October incident in which the lawyer and CNN legal analyst exposed his genitals during a company Zoom call.

“I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work,” Toobin tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

After the New Yorker suspended him, Toobin explained away the gaffe — which happened during an election-simulation call between New Yorker staffers and WNYC radio employees — as a mistake.

Advertisement

“I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera,” Toobin said in a statement to Vice a week after he was caught masturbating during a break in the group call. “I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.

“I believed I was not visible on Zoom,” he added. “I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

Toobin, 60, is also chief legal analyst for CNN. A spokesman for the news network said last month, after the incident, that Toobin had “asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted.”

CNN did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The pundit has been married to Amy McIntosh for 34 years, and they have two children. He also has a son by fellow lawyer Casey Greenfield, with whom he had a lengthy on-and-off affair. She got pregnant in 2008, but he didn’t admit paternity until sometime later, after a DNA test.

Advertisement