A staff writer for the New Yorker has been suspended by the US publication after reports he accidentally exposed himself during a work Zoom call. 

Jeffrey Toobin, who is Jewish, told Vice, which first reported the incident, that he did not realise he had been visible during a video call between colleagues and WNYC radio last week.

According to Vice, Mr Toobin appeared to be on a different Zoom call but was seen “masturbating” moments later on camera.

He said that he had “made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologise to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.”

In a statement to the Jewish Chronicle, a spokesperson for the New Yorker said Mr Toobin, 60, had been “suspended while we investigate the matter.” 

Mr Toobin, who is also the chief legal analyst at CNN, requested time off “while he deals with a personal issue,” the broadcaster told the Associated Press.

The journalist and author, who graduated from Harvard University and previously served as an assistant US attorney in Brooklyn, has published nine non-fiction books.

His latest, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump”, was released in the summer.