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Jeffrey Toobin

1960

Toobin was born to a Jewish-American family in New York City in 1960, a son of Marlene Sanders, former ABC News and CBS News correspondent, and Jerome Toobin, a news broadcasting producer. His younger brother, Mark, born in 1967 with Down syndrome, has lived apart from the family.

May 21, 1960

Jeffrey Ross Toobin (/ˈtuːbɪn/; born May 21, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, blogger, and legal analyst for CNN.

1986

He attended Harvard Law School, where classmates included Elena Kagan, and he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated in 1986 with a J.D., magna cum laude.

1986

In 1986, Toobin married Amy Bennett McIntosh, whom he met in college while they worked at The Harvard Crimson. She is a 1980 Harvard graduate, holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, and has held executive positions at Verizon Communications and Zagat Survey. They have two adult children, a daughter and son.

1993

After three years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Toobin resigned from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, and abandoned "the practice of law." He started working as a writer in 1993 at The New Yorker and in 1996 became a television legal analyst for ABC.

1994

Toobin has provided broadcast legal analysis on several high-profile cases. In 1994, Toobin broke the story in The New Yorker that the legal defense team in O. J. Simpson's criminal trial planned to accuse Mark Fuhrman of the LAPD of planting evidence. Toobin provided analysis of Michael Jackson's 2005 child molestation trial, the O. J. Simpson civil case, and independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton.

2000

In 2000 Toobin received an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elián González custody saga, which had resulted in the return of the boy from the United States to communist-led Cuba.

2002

Toobin joined CNN in 2002 as a legal analyst. In 2003, he secured the first interview with Martha Stewart about the insider trading charges against her.

2009

Toobin had a longtime off-and-on extramarital affair with attorney Casey Greenfield, the daughter of American television journalist and author Jeff Greenfield and his first wife, Carrie Carmichael. Casey Greenfield was formerly married to screenwriter Matt Manfredi. Greenfield gave birth to Toobin's son in 2009; Toobin initially resisted acknowledging the boy. Toobin's paternity was confirmed with a DNA test as part of a suit by Greenfield for custody and child support.

2016

Toobin has written several books, including accounts of the 1970s Patty Hearst kidnapping and her time with the SLA, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The latter two were adapted for television as seasons of FX's American Crime Story, with the Simpson case premiering in 2016.

October 19, 2020

On October 19, 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Toobin was suspended from The New Yorker after he masturbated on camera during a Zoom video call between New Yorker and WNYC radio staffers. CNN said Toobin "has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted". Toobin said in a statement: "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers." In November 2020 he was fired from The New Yorker, following an internal investigation by the parent organization, Condé Nast. New York Public Radio, which owns WNYC, indefinitely banned Toobin from its broadcasts and podcasts.

June 10, 2021

On June 10, 2021, Toobin returned to CNN as its chief legal analyst. He described his conduct as "deeply moronic and indefensible" and said he "didn't think other people could see [him]", but admitted that this was no defense for his behavior. He said the time he spent off air went toward "trying to be a better person", working on his upcoming book about the Oklahoma City bombing, going to therapy, and working at a food bank.

August 12, 2022

On August 12, 2022, Toobin announced via Twitter that he would leave CNN after 20 years. His last day on air was August 4. In February 2024, Toobin began appearing again on CNN as a frequent guest, offering analysis on both president Biden and former president Trump's current legal situations.