(NewsNation) — In 2020, Jeffrey Toobin exposed himself to colleagues in a Zoom call. After the news came out that Toobin was spotted masturbating on the call, The New Yorker magazine fired him.
“It was a disaster in my life, self-inflicted, self-destructive and something I will regret for the rest of my life,” Toobin told NewsNation host Dan Abrams on Wednesday. “I have no excuses. I have only apologies, which I have tried to offer to everyone involved.”
Toobin told Abrams he was unaware other people on the Zoom call were watching him.
“This was not an intentional act on my part. Other than that, I’d rather not go into the details,” Toobin said.
Later in the interview, he added: “The whole thing is lousy. If I could rewrite history or go back in time, of course, I would not want to have brought this on myself and more importantly, on my family. But, as we used to say in school, this is on my permanent record. I know that, but I hope it’s not the entirety of my permanent record.”
After the incident, Toobin stepped away from his role as a CNN legal analyst for months before eventually rejoining, then leaving the network last year. According to Toobin, he was not fired by CNN, but it was a “mutual decision” for him to leave.
“We’ve been in the similar business for a long time. I’ve done 20 years of live shots. I was ready to do something else,” Toobin told Abrams. He later added he didn’t think CNN management was “brokenhearted” to see him go.
Toobin says a lot has happened in his life since the infamous Zoom call and he now feels like his life is in “a very good place.” He just released a new book: “Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
