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Afternoon Briefs: Toobin returns to CNN after Zoom exposure; DOJ inspector general will review leak subpoenas

By Debra Cassens Weiss

June 11, 2021, 3:18 pm CDT

Jeffrey Toobin returns to CNN after Zoom incident

Journalist and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has returned to CNN eight months after he masturbated during a break in a Zoom call with colleagues at the New Yorker. Toobin was fired from the New Yorker after 27 years with the magazine. In an interview with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota, Toobin said he didn’t think anyone could see him, but his conduct was “deeply moronic and indefensible.” (CNN, the New York Times)

DOJ inspector general will review leak subpoenas

The Department of Justice’s inspector general will review department subpoenas and other legal maneuvers used to obtain communications records of lawmakers and journalists. The records were obtained during the Trump administration in a quest to determine the source of leaks of classified information. The review will consider whether policies were followed and whether the subpoenas were issued based on improper considerations. The announcement Friday by Inspector General Michael Horowitz follows a New York Times report that the DOJ seized records of at least a dozen people connected to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018, including records of Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, now the committee’s chairman. (Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General press release)

Former 2nd Circuit judge dies at 68

Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals at New York has died at age 68. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his wife told the New York Times. Katzmann was chief judge of the 2nd Circuit from 2013 to 2020. The son and grandson of Jewish refugees, Katzmann championed competent legal representation for poor immigrants. Writing at Original Jurisdiction, Above the Law founder David Lat described Katzmann as a “great judge, a brilliant legal mind and a true mensch, unfailingly kind and thoughtful.” (The New York Times, Original Jurisdiction, the New York Law Journal, How Appealing)

Federal judge rules All-Star Game can stay in Denver

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York has refused to issue an injunction that would force Major League Baseball to move the July 13 All-Star Game back to Georgia. A conservative business group had sued when MLB said it would move the game to Denver because of Georgia’s new election integrity law, which has been criticized as a voter-suppression measure. Caproni said the group that sued, Job Creators Network, had no standing because it couldn’t show how it or its members were harmed. (The Denver Post, Reuters)