CNN Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin Exits Network After 20-Year Tenure

Jeffrey Toobin’s time at CNN has come to an end.

The network’s chief legal analyst announced on Twitter that he was exiting his post after 20 years after his current vacation. “Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf [Blitzer], Anderson [Cooper] and Don [Lemon],” he posted. “Love all my former colleagues.”

The news comes a little more than a year after Toobin rejoined CNN after being off the air for eight months following a “deeply moronic and indefensible” situation on a Zoom call with his colleagues at The New Yorker during which he says he unknowingly exposed himself. In an interview on his first day back on CNN, Toobin said he was a “flawed human being who makes mistakes” while apologizing to viewers and all of his colleagues.

“I got a lot to rebuild, but I feel very privileged and very lucky that I’m going to be able to try to do that,” he said. “I am trying to become the kind of person that people can trust again.”

He has been seen on the air over the summer but presumably has been on this current vacation since early August. Aside from today’s tweet, he has not posted anything since Aug. 2. In recent days, CNN has leaned on senior legal analyst Elie Honig during this week’s bombshell news in the wake of FBI searching former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and confiscating boxes of documents he took from the White House.

Toobin ended his tweet promoting his upcoming new book about the Oklahoma City bombing, set for release in 2023 from Simon and Schuster. His previous books include True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, among others. The latter title was made into an Emmy Award-winning limited series for FX.

The news was first reported by Radar Online. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to CNN for additional comment. The network continues to see changes in staffing and strategy under the guidance of Chris Licht who was named CNN CEO in February after the WarnerMedia Discovery merger took effect.

More to come.

Friends, I’ve decided that, after 20 years, I’m leaving @cnn after my vacation. Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf, Anderson and Don. Love all my former colleagues. Watch for my next book, about the Oklahoma City bombing, coming in 2023 from @simonandschuster

— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) August 12, 2022