Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Ross Toobin (born May 21, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and former legal commentator who gained prominence as a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1993 to 2020 and as CNN's chief legal analyst from 2002 to 2022. Toobin authored several bestselling books on landmark legal cases and institutions, including The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson (1996), which chronicled the Simpson murder trial, and The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (2007), offering an insider's view of the U.S. Supreme Court. His career, marked by frequent on-air analysis of major trials and political legal developments, was significantly disrupted by a 2020 scandal in which he masturbated during a Zoom video conference with New Yorker colleagues and WNYC staff, believing the call had ended and he was participating in a separate video chat; this led to his immediate suspension and eventual termination from The New Yorker, as well as a temporary suspension from CNN. Toobin returned to CNN on a part-time basis in June 2021 but departed the network entirely in August 2022 amid ongoing scrutiny of his professional conduct. Earlier in his career, Toobin worked as an appellate counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice and assisted in the Iran-Contra affair prosecution, establishing his legal expertise before transitioning to journalism.

Jeffrey Toobin was born on May 21, 1960, in New York City to Jerome Toobin, a television news producer who served as news director at WNET Channel 13 and worked as a producer for Bill Moyers, and Marlene Sanders, a correspondent for ABC News and CBS News who became one of the first women to anchor a network news program after joining ABC in 1964. The family belonged to a Jewish background, with Sanders's side described as relatively secular.