Published: November 11, 2008 10:13 pm         

Expert on politics, media and law Jeffrey Toobin to speak at ISU

TERRE HAUTE — A high-profile senior analyst for CNN and staff writer for The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin is one of the country’s most esteemed experts on politics, media and the law.

Toobin will speak at 7 p.m. Nov. 24 in Tilson Auditorium. A book signing and reception in Heritage Lounge is planned immediately following his talk. Both the presentation and reception are free and open to the public.

He has provided analysis on some of the most provocative and important events of our time, including the O.J. Simpson trial, the Kenneth Starr investigation and impeachment of President Bill Clinton, and the disputed Florida recount of the 2000 presidential election.

The author of critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers, Toobin’s 2007 book “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court,” delves into the historical, political and personal inner workings of the Supreme Court and its justices to reveal the inside story of one of America’s most mysterious and powerful institutions.

His bestseller “Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election” is the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. “Too Close to Call,” like his other books, is packed with news-making disclosures and written with the drive of a legal thriller.

With clarity, insight and a deep understanding of the law, Toobin deconstructs the events, the players and the intricacies of our judicial system, ending up with an account of one of the most significant periods in our nation’s history.

Toobin received 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. After a six-year tenure at ABC News, where he covered the country’s highest-profile cases and received a 2000 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elian Gonzales custody saga, he joined CNN as a legal analyst for the CNN News Group in 2002 where he now serves as senior analyst.

Also a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1993, he has written articles on such subjects as former Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the trial of Timothy McVeigh. His article “An Incendiary Defense” for the magazine broke the news that the O.J. Simpson defense team planned to accuse Mark Fuhrman of planting evidence and to play “the race card.”

Prior to joining The New Yorker, Toobin served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Brooklyn, NY. He also served as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Council Lawrence E. Walsh, an experience that provided the basis for his first book, “Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case-United States v. Oliver North.”