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Jeffrey Toobin Supreme Court Journalist, Author, CNN Commentator

About the Author

Jeffrey Toobin is one of the most recognized and admired legal journalists in the country. On television, in best-selling books, and in magazines and podcasts, he has covered all the most dramatic legal controversies of the past three decades. He currently contributes to CNN broadcasts, serves as an instructor at Harvard Law School on trial practice, and writes for national media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New York Review of Books.

His forthcoming and tenth book, The Pardon: Nixon, Ford, and the Politics of Presidential Mercy, is a timely exploration of the most controversial presidential pardon in American history—Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon—and its profound implications for our current political landscape. Some of Toobin’s other works include Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, which was adapted into an acclaimed podcast. He is also the author of The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, which was made into an acclaimed television series by FX Network, and A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President, which was also adapted into a television series by FX.

On television and in print, Toobin has been a leading figure in coverage of the Supreme Court and major legal controversies. He has covered several high-profile cases such as OJ Simpson’s trial, Michael Jackson’s molestation case, and the investigation of President Bill Clinton. His book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court earned the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Prize for Nonfiction from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Toobin served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, and also as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh.

In his lectures, Toobin unpacks the complicated realities of some of the most famous trials in our nation’s history with expertise and enthusiasm. He tackles today’s political landscape with a rich understanding of the Supreme Court and the rule of law and shares key insights with audiences to enhance their perspective of political figures, Capitol Hill, and our justice system. 

Toobin earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He lives with his family in New York City.

Suggested Topics

  • The Supreme Court
  • Journalism and CNN
  • Current Political Landscape

Raves and Reviews

Praise for Homegrown

Toobin provides the most authoritative and compelling history of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to date. But what makes it such a gripping read is how Toobin puts the attack in context of an extremist, anti-government movement that has accelerated in the Internet age and eventually led to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol….His account of the bombing serves as a warning sign as much as it does a history of that legacy.”
—The Associated Press

Homegrown repeatedly draws a ‘direct line’.. between the Oklahoma City bombing and the insurrection on Jan. 6… Intriguing.”
— The New York Times

Probing.”
— The New Yorker

The definitive book on McVeigh’s continuing legacy. This book serves as a wake-up call to the ongoing extremist threat…Though McVeigh was executed in 2001, Homegrown shows that his story is very much a story for today….Toobin carefully maps the road that leads from McVeigh to MAGA, January 6, and the right-wing extremism and violence we see today.”
—The Texas Observer

Extraordinary….A terrific reporter with legal expertise and a knack for vivid storytelling….Much of Homegrown reads like a Jack Kerouac novel…”
—The Chicago Sun-Times

Brilliantly researched and argued….Toobin’s journalistic assessment of McVeigh and his paranoid style of politics generates an inescapable conclusion: The problem is getting worse….The bad news from Toobin’s remarkable work is that as long as the right wing fails to get its way, violence and threats against democracy and the people it is intended to represent will continue at the hand of Timothy McVeigh’s ideological heirs.”
—Washington Monthly

The definitive account of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the enduring legacy of Timothy McVeigh, leading to the January 6 insurrection.”
—Next Big Idea Club

In this gripping and harrowing work of history, Toobin has rendered a searing portrait of Timothy McVeigh. Toobin also illuminates the way extremism continues to infect our present. If you want to understand the threats to our democracy today, read this powerful book.”
—David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager

With groundbreaking reporting and sober analysis, Toobin offers an illuminating exploration of the unfolding story of right-wing extremism in the United States. The threat remains with us; useful and engaging, Toobin’s account should brace us for the ongoing struggle against the worst of us.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of And There Was Light

Anyone trying to understand the violent extremism that led to the assault on America’s Capitol on January 6th, and anyone who thinks that day marked the end of the story, must read Homegrown. Toobin shows that today’s domestic terrorists are neither new, nor an isolated phenomenon. McVeigh’s story is a nonfiction thriller, both eye-opening, and an urgently needed warning.”
—Jane Mayer, bestselling author of Dark Money

It’s tempting to believe that the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol took the Far Right to a deadly new level of violent fanaticism. Toobin’s fast-paced, expertly crafted book reminds us that it was all there a quarter of a century earlier, in a horrific mass murder that too many of us dismissed as the work of an unhinged loner.”
—Adam Hochschild, author of eleven books, including American Midnight

Toobin’s finest work. The writing is propulsive, driven by huge moment-to-moment suspense. As always, Toobin’s research is impeccable. Most important, Toobin draws a straight line from McVeigh, whose crime has been understood sometimes as an isolated act of lunatic savagery, to the right-wing extremists who imperil us today.”
— Scott Turow, #1 New York Times author of Presumed Innocent and Suspect

A riveting account of the man behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the legacy of his actions, which reverberate today….an exhaustive but fascinating chronicle….Toobin delivers an equally gripping account of the prosecution, defense, trial, media coverage, and five years of appeals before his execution….An authoritative, disheartening, depressingly relevant page-turner.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

An eye-opening study of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995….a persuasive case that the bombing was motivated by beliefs that have come to dominate right-wing politics. It’s a tragic and edifying account of the road to domestic terrorism.”
—Publishers Weekly

McVeigh was radicalized by many of the same ideas that radicalize extremists today….Toobin gathered insider facts from a trove of documents donated by the defense lawyers to weave together this hard-hitting narrative. Given the continued threats of violence and other actions against officials and democracy itself, Homegrown is a must read.”
—Booklist

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