FACT CHECK: Did Jeffrey Toobin Comment On Andrew Cuomo’s Sexual Harassment Allegations On CNN?

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin commenting on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations.

Verdict: False

The image shows CNN political director David Chalian, not Toobin. Toobin does not appear to have gone on CNN to discuss the allegations against Cuomo so far.

Fact Check:

James released a 165-page report that found Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women and fostered a “toxic” work environment, according to the Washington Post. Cuomo strongly denied the claims in a video released after James’ Aug. 3 press conference detailing the report’s findings, NBC New York reported.

Now, a Facebook image shows what appears to be a still frame from a segment aired on CNN featuring two men and two women on the left side, and a picture of Cuomo on the right. Text accompanying the image reads, “Wow CNN a has Jeffrey Toobin analyzing Gov. Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal. I can’t make this up.”

Toobin exposed himself on a Zoom call in October 2020, resulting in him being fired from his job as a staff writer for The New Yorker and taking a leave of absence from his job with CNN, according to The New York Times. Toobin returned to CNN in June, the outlet reported.

The image, does not however, show Toobin on CNN commenting on Cuomo’s sexual assault allegations. Check Your Fact found the segment shown in the Facebook image published on CNN’s website. The clip shows the man in the lower-left corner commenting on the allegations, and he is identified in a chyron as Chalian. The man in the upper-right corner is CNN legal analyst Paul Callan.

Toobin does not appear to have made comments on Cuomo’s allegations on CNN to date. A search of his CNN profile did not yield any results for segments on such a topic. Nor did a search of video clip editing service Grabien turn up any segments of Toobin commenting on Cuomo.

“That’s David Chalian in the screengrab, not Jeffrey Toobin,” CNN spokesperson Bridget Leininger told Check Your Fact in an email.

Curtis Houck, the managing editor of conservative media watchdog site Newsbusters, also pointed out in an Aug 3 tweet that the person shown in the Facebook post was Chalian.

Guys, it’s CNN political director David Chalian who’s been on all day talking about Andrew Cuomo, NOT Jeffrey Toobin.

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 3, 2021

“Guys, it’s CNN political director David Chalian who’s been on all day talking about Andrew Cuomo, NOT Jeffrey Toobin,” the tweet reads.

Journalist Megyn Kelly and radio host Clay Travis both sent tweets on Aug. 3 mistaking Chailan for Toobin. Both later corrected themselves in subsequent tweets.

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