New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Toobin was suspended after he exposed himself during a Zoom call with colleagues, an incident he termed an accident, Vice reported.

Toobin is also the chief legal analyst at CNN and has “asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted,” a spokesperson for CNN said.

The reporter said in a statement that he made “an embarrassingly stupid mistake” believing he was off-camera, CNN reported. 

“I apologise to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,” he said.

He thought he was not visible in Zoom and had muted the video, the statement read.

Ordinarily, Toobin would have been busy covering the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.

According to CNN, an event relating to Toobin’s recent book about President Donald Trump was postponed on Monday.