‘It Was a Disaster in My Life’: Jeffrey Toobin Calls CNN Firing Over Masturbation Maelstrom ‘Self-inflicted, Self-destructive’
May 4 2023, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Jeffrey Toobin revealed that the infamous Zoom call that ultimately led to his departure from CNN last year was a “disaster” in his life, RadarOnline.com has learned.
On Wednesday night, during his first cable news TV interview since leaving CNN in August, Toobin spoke about the October 2020 Zoom call in which he “unwittingly” touched himself in front of a group of his colleagues at The New Yorker.
According to Toobin, the incident – as well as his departure from the magazine and then his subsequent departure from CNN – was not only a “disaster” in his life but also “self-inflicted,” “self-destructive,” and something he will “regret for the rest of [his] life.”
“Well, let’s talk about the incident itself,” Toobin told Dan Abrams on Newsmax’s Dan Abrams Live on Wednesday night. “It was a disaster in my life – self-inflicted, self-destructive, and something that I will regret for the rest of my life.”
“I have no excuses. I have only apologies, which I have tried to offer to everyone involved, including very much my family, which was terribly embarrassed by it,” the 62-year-old disgraced legal analyst continued. “But it’s now more than two and a half years ago and a lot has happened – almost all good since then. And I feel like my life is in a very good place, actually.”
“You know, I’m not gonna go into grisly details,” Toobin replied when Abrams asked what exactly happened during the October 2020 Zoom call. “The only thing I’ll say about it is, I didn’t know other people were on the Zoom call, were watching. This was not an intentional act on my part.”
Even more surprising was Toobin’s claim that he was not fired from CNN as a result of the Zoom call, and that he and the struggling news network “mutually decided” that he would leave.
“I was very fortunate that CNN brought me back,” he explained. “And I worked at CNN for over a year after being brought back.”
“No, no, no,” Toobin responded after Abrams asked whether he was fired from the network. “I was not fired by CNN. No, that was a mutual decision that I left, I guess it was last August.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Toobin first came under fire in October 2020 after he masturbated while on a Zoom call with his New Yorker colleagues.
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Although he was quickly let go from the magazine and temporarily placed on leave at CNN, he returned to his role with the network as a legal analyst in June 2021.
But come August 2022, Toobin announced he was leaving CNN.
“Friends, I’ve decided that, after 20 years, I’m leaving [CNN] after my vacation,” he tweeted on August 12. “Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf, Anderson, and Don. Love all my former colleagues.”
