CNN has been rolling out the red carpet for Jeffrey Toobin, its former scandal-plagued legal analyst who abruptly exited the network in 2022 under the previous corporate regime.
Toobin, known in recent years for his embarrassing 2020 masturbation snafu, has appeared on CNN nearly a dozen times since the beginning of the year to provide commentary on various legal hot topics like former President Trump's ongoing indictments, Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on President Biden and more recently the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to toss Colorado's Trump ballot ban.
He has most frequently appeared on "Anderson Cooper 360," making five appearances on that program since early February, according to Grabien transcripts. He has also appeared on CNN programs like "Laura Coates Live," "The Source with Kaitlan Collins," "CNN Newsnight" and "CNN This Morning." A former legal analyst for the network, he is simply introduced as a "former federal prosecutor."
Fox News Digital has learned that he's only a "guest" at this point and hasn't been hired back in an official capacity.
Jeffrey Toobin, who left CNN in 2022 on the heels of his Zoom masturbation scandal, has been appearing regularly on the network in recent weeks. (Screenshot/CNN)
Toobin, who first joined CNN in 2002, was one of the network’s go-to pundits when he was famously caught masturbating during a Zoom meeting with his New Yorker colleagues in October 2020.
The prestigious magazine fired Toobin for the act, but CNN kept him on board, granting him a lengthy leave of absence when the network was still controlled by former president Jeff Zucker.
When Toobin returned from the months-long hiatus in June 2021, he sat down with CNN's Alisyn Camerota to discuss the scandal and his time out of the public eye in an uncomfortable interview.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Camerota asked Toobin.
"Well, obviously, I wasn't thinking very well or very much, and it was something that was inexplicable to me. I think one point – I wouldn't exactly say in my defense, because nothing is really in my defense. I didn't think I was on the call. I didn't think other people could see me," Toobin said.
"I thought that I had turned off the Zoom call. Now, that's not a defense. This was deeply moronic and indefensible. But I mean, that is part of the story," he continued. "And you know, I have spent the seven subsequent months, miserable months in my life, I can certainly confess, trying to be a better person."
Jeffrey Toobin famously addressed the Zoom incident with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota in June 2021 following a months-long hiatus. (CNN)
Despite the widespread mockery CNN faced for the bizarre sit-down, it was business as usual for Toobin, who appeared regularly on the network for the next 14 months as its chief legal analyst.
That all changed in August 2022 when Toobin announced he "decided" to leave CNN. However, many felt he wasn’t exactly given a choice considering Zucker’s replacement, Chris Licht, was attempting to "tamp down spectacle" and restore the network’s credibility. Licht himself went on to be fired, and was replaced by current CNN boss Mark Thompson, who became the network’s third non-interim leader in less than two years.
Toobin was caught masturbating on a Zoom meeting in October 2020 with his New Yorker colleagues and was later fired by the magazine. (Getty Images)
CNN invited Toobin on-air at least three times in 2023 to promote a book before he began appearing regularly like he has been in recent weeks. Ironically, Camerota is now the one who is largely absent from CNN viewers as she was pulled from the network’s live broadcasts last year and reassigned to do pre-recorded segments and specials, recently appearing on CNN's weekend program "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper."
OutKick’s Mary Katharine Ham, a former CNN contributor who has said she was punished for tweeting about Toobin’s scandal, joked about Toobin's CNN resurrection on Tuesday’s installment of the "Ruthless" podcast.
"Who had a prop bet about Toobin making it back on air before me? I wish I had bet on it," she said.
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Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
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