Jeffrey Toobin, one of the best-known legal commentators in the US, was supposed to be representing the country’s courts in a New Yorker election simulation.

Two participants told Vice Motherboard that, at a break in the simulation, Toobin lowered the camera. People then saw him touching his penis. He thereafter left the call but returned moments later, seemingly unaware that he had been seen pleasuring himself.

Mr Toobin said he “made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera”.

He added: “I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

He has been suspended from the New Yorker and has taken time off from his role as chief legal analyst for CNN.