The New Yorker magazine has suspended longtime writer Jeffrey Toobin after he exposed himself and masturbated during a work Zoom call.
The 60-year-old, who has written for the New Yorker for 25 years, is said to have exposed himself while on a video call with staffers from the magazine and New York public radio station WNYC last week.
He is also taking a leave of absence from CNN for whom he works on-air as a legal analyst.
Toobin apologized in a statement to Vice, saying he thought he had turned his camera off at the time of the incident.
‘I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,’ he said.
‘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. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.’
The Zoom call was reportedly an ‘election simulation’, involving many of the magazine’s biggest stars including Jane Mayer, Evan Osnos, Jelani Cobb and Sue Halpern.
Vice initially reported that that the incident involved the exposure of Toobin’s ‘d***’ but it has since updated its story to state that he was allegedly masturbating.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are not completely clear however two people who were on the call have told Motherboard they witnessed Toobin masturbating.
The pair, who did not give their names, said that the incident happened after a break in the call.
Toobin apparently seemed to be on a separate call and when the break was over could allegedly be seen touching his penis. Toobin then left the call before logging back in shortly afterwards seemingly unaware at what others had just witnessed.
It is also not clear how many staffers were on the video call at the time.
A spokesperson for the New Yorker said Toobin had been suspended pending an investigation into the incident.
Toobin, who regularly uses Twitter, has not tweeted since October 13.