The New Yorker has fired the writer Jeffrey Toobin after he was caught masturbating on a Zoom call last month.
“As a result of our investigation, Jeffrey Toobin is no longer affiliated with the company,” a New Yorker spokesperson told TheWrap on Wednesday.
In a tweet, Toobin also announced he was fired by the magazine 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 wrote.
As first reported by VICE last month, Toobin was on a call with staff from the New Yorker and WNYC radio for an election simulation. During the call, there was a brief “strategy session” and it appeared that Toobin was on another video call, according to individuals on the call who spoke with VICE. Toobin was then seen lowering his camera and touching his penis as he masturbated, VICE reported.
“I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,” Toobin said at the time in a statement to VICE. “I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”
It’s not immediately clear whether Toobin, who also serves as the chief legal analyst at CNN but has been taking “time off” in light of the Zoom incident, will be returning to his role at the network. Spokespersons for CNN did not respond to a request for comment.
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