Toobin prematurely completes time at CNN, announces soft exit after 20 years

Jeffrey Toobin, the CNN legal analyst who was infamously caught masturbating during a Zoom meeting, announced Friday that he was leaving CNN after 20 years of appearances on the network.

Toobin wrote, "Friends, I’ve decided that, after 20 years, I’m leaving @cnn after my vacation. Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf, Anderson and Don. Love all my former colleagues. Watch for my next book, about the Oklahoma City bombing, coming in 2023 from @simonandschuster."

In October of 2021, Toobin was a New Yorker contributor but was suspended after he was caught masturbating on a heavily attended Zoom conference call with his co-workers. As "Zoom Dick" trended on Twitter, Toobin said, "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers."

Toobin reiterated how he believed he was not visible as he self-pleasured and said, "I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video."

Not long after he was fired from the New Yorker. Condé Nast’s chief people officer Stan Duncan wrote: "I am writing to share with you that our investigation regarding Jeffrey Toobin is complete, and as a result, he is no longer affiliated with our company."

CNN also placed him on leave after the incident but welcomed him back in June of 2021.

Alisyn Camerota asked, "What the hell were you thinking?" "Well obviously I wasn't thinking very much," Toobin replied.

Some CNN workers were displeased by Toobin's return and one anonymous female CNN employee said, "The way [the network] brought him back on air was a bit inappropriate in terms of a full segment of mea culpa and then a hard pivot to his legal analysis on air."

During his tenure at CNN, Toobin championed "creepy porn lawyer" Michael Avenatti and referred to Kyle Rittenhouse as an "idiot" among other contributions and is now working on a book about the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.