Does Jeffrey Toobin still work for CNN? Journalist Lisa DePaulo says he left her a 'pervy' voicemail of sex act
Writer Jeffrey Toobin found himself embroiled in a controversy last month. He was fired from New Yorker after serving for about three decades. Toobin issued an apology, saying he genuinely thought he had turned the camera off when the incident occurred on October 15.
Reportedly, his colleagues saw him masturbating on camera during a break on a Zoom video call. In a statement Toobin said, "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers. 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."
An investigation was conducted by The New Yorker after his suspension, while CNN, where he was a legal analyst, had confirmed that he was taking some time off to deal with a “personal issue”. Now, according to a recent The New York Times report, he is on leave from CNN, whose executives are reluctant to discuss his future. A spokeswoman confirmed to NYT that he remains the network’s chief legal analyst but did not comment further. As per the report, three CNN employees say that network president Jeff Zucker is a fan of Toobin’s and a supporter of second chances. However, Zucker may be leaving CNN in 2021, making his opinion perhaps immaterial. Toobin also declined to comment on the NYT article.
But the Zoom video isn’t the only matter that Toobin is embroiled in. The NYT report also states that journalist Lisa DePaulo said that in 2003, Toobin asked her out for New Year’s Eve, claiming that he had separated from his wife. However after a few days of accepting it, she received a phone message from Toobin in which, she alleges, he described in vulgar terms a sex act he planned on enacting with her.
“I kept the message and played it for all my friends,” she said. The NYT states that one of them verified her story in an interview. Allegedly, Toobin later called to confirm she’d gotten his message, to which she said, “usually someone takes me to dinner first.” He then told her that he was back together with his wife. “I didn’t think he was a sexual predator,” DePaulo said. “I just thought he was a nice guy who was pervy. It was just like, ‘Jeffrey? Ick!’”
Toobin married Amy Bennett McIntosh, his fellow at Harvard in 1986. He met Amy in college while they worked at the Harvard Crimson. The married couple has two children — a daughter and a son. However, many media reports indicate that Toobin had an extramarital affair with attorney Casey Greenfield, who is the daughter of television journalist and author Jeff Greenfield.
In 2012, The New York Times reported that after Casey was pregnant and informed Toobin of it, “he questioned the paternity, balked at submitting to a test and vowed to take no responsibility for a baby he wasn’t sure was his". Both hired lawyers. Casey said as reported in The New York Times, “The one time you don’t want to get pregnant is when you’re single and the other person is married and you’re working as a first-year junior associate at a law firm in a hard-core phase of trying to prove yourself to them.”
Casey underwent a risky DNA test while pregnant, as reported by Daily News in 2010. While earlier reluctant, Toobin finally cooperated with a DNA test that proved he was Rory's dad, the son he had with Casey. The site reported that a Manhattan Family Court judge ordered Toobin to pay child support. However, when he refused to pay the full amount, Casey’s lawyer threatened to alert his employers and garnish his wages, eventually leading to Toobin paying the amount.
These remarks were made by third-person and individual organizations, MEAWW cannot confirm them independently nor does it support these claims. The respective references are linked in the article.