Toby Ziegler
Encyclopedia
Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler is played by Richard Schiff
on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director
.
, Schiff was cast in the role of Toby Ziegler over many other actors auditioning, including Eugene Levy
. Schiff created his own backstory for the character by wearing his own wedding ring, something Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme did not notice until the show's eighth episode, while planning to give Toby an ex-wife. "I had always imagined that his first wife had died, which accounts for his sadness, and why someone would devote himself to public service and be so singular about it," says Schiff. "But then, Aaron and Tommy threw that right out the window."
Richard Schiff recently claimed during an interview on Britain's BBC News 24 that the character had been heavily based upon the American-Scots Political advisor Patrick Cohen who was prominent in both Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign and is viewed as one of the key architects of New Labour. Ziegler is the last name of the Press Secretary under Richard Nixon, Ron Ziegler.
, Brooklyn
, New York City under a Yiddish speaking upbringing. His father, Jules "Julie" Ziegler was an immigrant who, according to one episode, "needed the G.I. Bill," implying that he fought in either World War II or the Korean War
. He made women's raincoats for a living; however, prior to this he worked for Murder Incorporated
and served time in prison, complicating his relationship with Toby.
Toby's other relatives are less visible on the show. His mother had been dead for twelve years as of season three. Both he and his father have mentioned sisters, whom Toby says took him to protest rallies in the mid-1960s, as well as nieces and nephews. His younger brother, Dr. David Ziegler, is a mission specialist at NASA
who commits suicide after learning that he has terminal cancer. He has also made reference to a grandfather who lived to be 96 years old, but for the last twenty years of his life "thought the Habsburgs still lived in a big palace in Vienna."
In season 4, episode 19 Toby reveals that his draft number for Vietnam was not called. Toby was once married to Andrea Wyatt
, who served as a Congresswoman from a district centered on Baltimore, Maryland. They divorced in the first year of the Bartlet Administration after unsuccessful attempts to have children. Toward the end of the Bartlet re-election campaign, however, Andi becomes pregnant with his twins. Following this, Toby begins to actively pursue a renewed relationship with Andi. After his initial proposals of marriage are rejected, and imagining that she is making him chase her, he sets about attempting to eradicate the behaviors that Andi has found irritating in the past. He forces himself to eat salads, and sells his bachelor pad, buying Andi the property she has always considered her "dream house". Andi is mortified by the gesture, refusing his proposal once more and telling him that he is "too sad" for her. Moments later, her water breaks, and the twins - named Huck and Molly - are born shortly thereafter. Huck is named for Andi's grandfather, and Molly for Molly O'Connor, the Secret Service
agent who is killed in the line of duty on the day of their birth.
Toby is rather morose, a characteristic that is reflected in his typical wardrobe, usually dull shades of gray and brown. He is something of an idealist, often less willing than his colleagues and the President to compromise on his political values. He has proven to be a more than formidable opponent in an argument, easily able to hold his own against even Bartlet himself. He is also known for his acerbic wit.
A Reform Jew, Toby sometimes attends synagogue on the Sabbath, but is not observant of the Torah and its commandments. At one point he suggests to Josh Lyman
that, because he is from the current and former Jewish neighborhoods of New York City rather than the well-off town of Westport, Connecticut
, he is therefore more Jewish than Josh.
Toby's education is less well-established than that of his colleagues. He seems to have a particular fondness for grammatical correctness: he is able to name all the types of punctuation from memory, and claimed to have discovered a possible typographical error in the US Constitution which, he believes, could change the interpretation of the Takings Clause. He attended City College of New York
, having been seen to wear a City College of New York
sweatshirt. He also recalled during Season 5 that he had met the Chief Justice of the United States while a student at City College.
Toby is a fan of the New York Yankees
. He claimed to have attended 441 games at Yankee Stadium
as of May 2002. If he began attending games at the age of 7, in 1961, this works out to an average of about 11 games a season, although it is unclear whether he could keep up this pace while working at the White House, located 235 miles from Yankee Stadium.
for America presidential campaign, Toby was a professional political operative who worked for various political campaigns such as New York City Council
seats, Bronx Borough President
and U.S. House and Senate races. However, he had never been on a winning campaign prior to Bartlet's successful 1998 presidential bid.
Once in the White House, Toby is rewarded for his work on the campaign, with Bartlet naming him his communications director and senior domestic policy adviser. Later, it is revealed that Toby was not the President's first choice for the job, although the President confides in the same episode that he is grateful that his first choice turned down the position. Of all the senior staffers, Toby is the most prone to clash with the President, being unafraid to challenge his judgment and question his actions when he feels Bartlet is not acting according to his true morality.
Toby's role in the office is often as a gruff, older brother, particularly to Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn
. In particular Toby seems to support Josh, even supporting him as Leo McGarry
's replacement as Chief of Staff, despite Toby being considered a candidate for the position at the same time.
When Will Bailey
leaves the President's staff to work for the V.P., Toby interprets the move as a betrayal, and develops an antagonistic attitude towards Will. Similarly, when Josh leaves the White House towards the end of Bartlet's second term to run a Presidential campaign, Toby views this as a betrayal as well, and is extremely hostile to Josh until long after. His reaction is eventually explained with the revelation that his brother David, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, committed suicide rather than live what time he had left: "He could have had years. But instead he just dropped everything and walked away." Toby felt "walking away" was what Josh had done also. Josh later (successfully) moves to keep their friendship alive, and Toby keeps advising Josh as he tries to get Santos elected president.
Toby's oldest friend in the White House is C.J. Cregg, whom he met during an earlier campaign and whom he personally recruited for the position of Press Secretary. When Toby is fired in Bartlet's final year due to treasonous actions on Toby's part, their close relationship is hit hard and is not mended until the penultimate episode of the series and Toby's final scene.
Toby accomplishes much in his tenure as communications director, including writing both of Bartlet's inaugural addresses as well as his State of the Union addresses. His most notable accomplishment is "fixing" Social Security during the fifth season of the show, the sixth year of the Bartlet administration. He thinks of it early one morning, almost resigns after it is leaked by the Senator who was participating in it, but then, tumultuously, fixes it at the end of the show with the help of Josh Lyman
. After C.J. Cregg's promotion from Press Secretary to White House Chief of Staff in early season six, he also serves as the de facto White House Press Secretary in addition to his role as Communications Director. Toby initially had trouble facing the press in the new role and makes several major gaffes, but learns to perform the duty well with the help of new Deputy Press Secretary Annabeth Schott
.
to Greg Brock, a reporter for The New York Times
. He takes this action when the International Space Station develops a potentially fatal oxygen leak while three astronauts are on board. No civilian space shuttles are available to perform a rescue mission in time and the military appears unwilling to use its secret space shuttle to rescue the astronauts. Knowing that if the military shuttle's existence becomes public knowledge, the public would demand the safe return of the astronauts, Toby leaks the story, resulting in the successful rescue of the astronauts.
Toby eventually confesses to C. J. that he had been the leak. Bartlet does not accept Toby's resignation, instead must fire him. Toby attends Leo's funeral, but decides to sit in the back of the church to avoid press coverage. He is similarly unable to attend Leo's burial at Arlington National Cemetery
because of the press circus his attendance might have caused. Despite strong mixed emotions, Bartlet's final official act as President of the United States is to pardon
Toby and thus spare him from having to serve his prison sentence. The precise nature of Toby's possible trial and sentencing is unclear. He appears to have been ready earlier to plead guilty in federal court; later, he states that he will serve his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia
. (Though the maximum length of the possible sentence is six years, C.J. Cregg later refers to Toby's own sentence as a five year term.) However, the pardon signed by President Bartlet on his final day in office contains the sentence, "His [Ziegler's] trial is pending."
In the episode The Ticket
, a flashforward reveals that, at the time of the dedication of Bartlet's presidential library
three years later that Toby has been spending time either at Columbia University
, or in Colombia
the country. Toby had been invited to the dedication by Bartlet and it appears they have moved on from the shuttle leak incident.
Schiff had previously publicly praised the show's writers—and Sorkin in particular—for the richness of the characters in the series. However, during the show's final season, Schiff says he felt let down by the writers as some of his episodes were cut "purely on a financial decision." He was particularly critical of the military shuttle leak storyline, which saw his character indicted for leaking classified information. "Toby would never in 10 million years have betrayed the president in that fashion," says Schiff. "Even if he had, there would have been seven episodes' worth of fights before he did it." He justified the story to himself by reasoning that Toby was covering for somebody else. In terms of the plot, it is implied that he was, in fact, covering for CJ Cregg, who may have leaked the story during a moral crisis compounded by the Republican national convention. Also, Toby's brother, who had died earlier in that season, was an astronaut. It's also implied that this is another reason for leaking the information.
Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award...
on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director
White House Communications Director
The White House Director of Communications, also known as Assistant to the President for Communications, is part of the senior staff of the President of the United States, and is responsible for developing and promoting the agenda of the President and leading its media campaign...
.
Creation and development
According to series creator Aaron SorkinAaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
, Schiff was cast in the role of Toby Ziegler over many other actors auditioning, including Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
. Schiff created his own backstory for the character by wearing his own wedding ring, something Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme did not notice until the show's eighth episode, while planning to give Toby an ex-wife. "I had always imagined that his first wife had died, which accounts for his sadness, and why someone would devote himself to public service and be so singular about it," says Schiff. "But then, Aaron and Tommy threw that right out the window."
Richard Schiff recently claimed during an interview on Britain's BBC News 24 that the character had been heavily based upon the American-Scots Political advisor Patrick Cohen who was prominent in both Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign and is viewed as one of the key architects of New Labour. Ziegler is the last name of the Press Secretary under Richard Nixon, Ron Ziegler.
Character biography
Tobias Zachary Ziegler was born December 23, 1954. His childhood and family details are not fully known; he was from a working class background, and grew up in Brighton BeachBrighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City under a Yiddish speaking upbringing. His father, Jules "Julie" Ziegler was an immigrant who, according to one episode, "needed the G.I. Bill," implying that he fought in either World War II or the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He made women's raincoats for a living; however, prior to this he worked for Murder Incorporated
Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...
and served time in prison, complicating his relationship with Toby.
Toby's other relatives are less visible on the show. His mother had been dead for twelve years as of season three. Both he and his father have mentioned sisters, whom Toby says took him to protest rallies in the mid-1960s, as well as nieces and nephews. His younger brother, Dr. David Ziegler, is a mission specialist at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
who commits suicide after learning that he has terminal cancer. He has also made reference to a grandfather who lived to be 96 years old, but for the last twenty years of his life "thought the Habsburgs still lived in a big palace in Vienna."
In season 4, episode 19 Toby reveals that his draft number for Vietnam was not called. Toby was once married to Andrea Wyatt
Andrea Wyatt
Andrea 'Andy' Wyatt, played by Kathleen York, is a fictional recurring character on the NBC political drama The West Wing. She is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing the state of Maryland, and former wife of White House Communications Director Toby...
, who served as a Congresswoman from a district centered on Baltimore, Maryland. They divorced in the first year of the Bartlet Administration after unsuccessful attempts to have children. Toward the end of the Bartlet re-election campaign, however, Andi becomes pregnant with his twins. Following this, Toby begins to actively pursue a renewed relationship with Andi. After his initial proposals of marriage are rejected, and imagining that she is making him chase her, he sets about attempting to eradicate the behaviors that Andi has found irritating in the past. He forces himself to eat salads, and sells his bachelor pad, buying Andi the property she has always considered her "dream house". Andi is mortified by the gesture, refusing his proposal once more and telling him that he is "too sad" for her. Moments later, her water breaks, and the twins - named Huck and Molly - are born shortly thereafter. Huck is named for Andi's grandfather, and Molly for Molly O'Connor, the Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
agent who is killed in the line of duty on the day of their birth.
Toby is rather morose, a characteristic that is reflected in his typical wardrobe, usually dull shades of gray and brown. He is something of an idealist, often less willing than his colleagues and the President to compromise on his political values. He has proven to be a more than formidable opponent in an argument, easily able to hold his own against even Bartlet himself. He is also known for his acerbic wit.
A Reform Jew, Toby sometimes attends synagogue on the Sabbath, but is not observant of the Torah and its commandments. At one point he suggests to Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
that, because he is from the current and former Jewish neighborhoods of New York City rather than the well-off town of Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut
-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....
, he is therefore more Jewish than Josh.
Toby's education is less well-established than that of his colleagues. He seems to have a particular fondness for grammatical correctness: he is able to name all the types of punctuation from memory, and claimed to have discovered a possible typographical error in the US Constitution which, he believes, could change the interpretation of the Takings Clause. He attended City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, having been seen to wear a City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
sweatshirt. He also recalled during Season 5 that he had met the Chief Justice of the United States while a student at City College.
Toby is a fan of the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
. He claimed to have attended 441 games at Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
as of May 2002. If he began attending games at the age of 7, in 1961, this works out to an average of about 11 games a season, although it is unclear whether he could keep up this pace while working at the White House, located 235 miles from Yankee Stadium.
At the White House
Before joining the BartletJosiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
for America presidential campaign, Toby was a professional political operative who worked for various political campaigns such as New York City Council
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
seats, Bronx Borough President
Borough president
Borough President is an elective office in each of the five boroughs of New York City.-Reasons for establishment:...
and U.S. House and Senate races. However, he had never been on a winning campaign prior to Bartlet's successful 1998 presidential bid.
Once in the White House, Toby is rewarded for his work on the campaign, with Bartlet naming him his communications director and senior domestic policy adviser. Later, it is revealed that Toby was not the President's first choice for the job, although the President confides in the same episode that he is grateful that his first choice turned down the position. Of all the senior staffers, Toby is the most prone to clash with the President, being unafraid to challenge his judgment and question his actions when he feels Bartlet is not acting according to his true morality.
Toby's role in the office is often as a gruff, older brother, particularly to Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn
Sam Seaborn
Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...
. In particular Toby seems to support Josh, even supporting him as Leo McGarry
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
's replacement as Chief of Staff, despite Toby being considered a candidate for the position at the same time.
When Will Bailey
Will Bailey
William "Will" Bailey, is a fictional character played by Joshua Malina on the television serial drama The West Wing, holding various posts in the White House Office of Communications, Office of the Vice President and a backbencher Congressman .-Character biography:Will grew up in Belgium, as his...
leaves the President's staff to work for the V.P., Toby interprets the move as a betrayal, and develops an antagonistic attitude towards Will. Similarly, when Josh leaves the White House towards the end of Bartlet's second term to run a Presidential campaign, Toby views this as a betrayal as well, and is extremely hostile to Josh until long after. His reaction is eventually explained with the revelation that his brother David, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, committed suicide rather than live what time he had left: "He could have had years. But instead he just dropped everything and walked away." Toby felt "walking away" was what Josh had done also. Josh later (successfully) moves to keep their friendship alive, and Toby keeps advising Josh as he tries to get Santos elected president.
Toby's oldest friend in the White House is C.J. Cregg, whom he met during an earlier campaign and whom he personally recruited for the position of Press Secretary. When Toby is fired in Bartlet's final year due to treasonous actions on Toby's part, their close relationship is hit hard and is not mended until the penultimate episode of the series and Toby's final scene.
Toby accomplishes much in his tenure as communications director, including writing both of Bartlet's inaugural addresses as well as his State of the Union addresses. His most notable accomplishment is "fixing" Social Security during the fifth season of the show, the sixth year of the Bartlet administration. He thinks of it early one morning, almost resigns after it is leaked by the Senator who was participating in it, but then, tumultuously, fixes it at the end of the show with the help of Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
. After C.J. Cregg's promotion from Press Secretary to White House Chief of Staff in early season six, he also serves as the de facto White House Press Secretary in addition to his role as Communications Director. Toby initially had trouble facing the press in the new role and makes several major gaffes, but learns to perform the duty well with the help of new Deputy Press Secretary Annabeth Schott
Annabeth Schott
Annabeth Schott, played by Kristin Chenoweth, is a fictional character on the political drama The West Wing. She joined the Bartlet administration in Season 6 as the Deputy Press Secretary for Media Relations following the promotion of C.J. Cregg to White House Chief of Staff...
.
Military shuttle leak storyline
Toby's tenure at the White House comes to an end when he admits to revealing classified information about a secret military space shuttleMilitary space shuttle
A military space shuttle would be the military equivalent of NASA's space shuttle. Many experts believed that it is extremely unlikely that NASA, the United States Department of Defense or any other Federal agency could keep the existence of such a spacecraft secret, given the official knowledge...
to Greg Brock, a reporter for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. He takes this action when the International Space Station develops a potentially fatal oxygen leak while three astronauts are on board. No civilian space shuttles are available to perform a rescue mission in time and the military appears unwilling to use its secret space shuttle to rescue the astronauts. Knowing that if the military shuttle's existence becomes public knowledge, the public would demand the safe return of the astronauts, Toby leaks the story, resulting in the successful rescue of the astronauts.
Toby eventually confesses to C. J. that he had been the leak. Bartlet does not accept Toby's resignation, instead must fire him. Toby attends Leo's funeral, but decides to sit in the back of the church to avoid press coverage. He is similarly unable to attend Leo's burial at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
because of the press circus his attendance might have caused. Despite strong mixed emotions, Bartlet's final official act as President of the United States is to pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
Toby and thus spare him from having to serve his prison sentence. The precise nature of Toby's possible trial and sentencing is unclear. He appears to have been ready earlier to plead guilty in federal court; later, he states that he will serve his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
. (Though the maximum length of the possible sentence is six years, C.J. Cregg later refers to Toby's own sentence as a five year term.) However, the pardon signed by President Bartlet on his final day in office contains the sentence, "His [Ziegler's] trial is pending."
In the episode The Ticket
The Ticket (The West Wing)
"The Ticket" is episode 133 of The West Wing, and the first episode of the seventh season.-Plot:The season opener starts with a scene from three years in the future; a reunion of several main characters at the opening of Bartlet's Presidential library. References are made to the lives of the...
, a flashforward reveals that, at the time of the dedication of Bartlet's presidential library
Presidential library
In the United States, the Presidential library system is a nationwide network of 13 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration...
three years later that Toby has been spending time either at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, or in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
the country. Toby had been invited to the dedication by Bartlet and it appears they have moved on from the shuttle leak incident.
Schiff had previously publicly praised the show's writers—and Sorkin in particular—for the richness of the characters in the series. However, during the show's final season, Schiff says he felt let down by the writers as some of his episodes were cut "purely on a financial decision." He was particularly critical of the military shuttle leak storyline, which saw his character indicted for leaking classified information. "Toby would never in 10 million years have betrayed the president in that fashion," says Schiff. "Even if he had, there would have been seven episodes' worth of fights before he did it." He justified the story to himself by reasoning that Toby was covering for somebody else. In terms of the plot, it is implied that he was, in fact, covering for CJ Cregg, who may have leaked the story during a moral crisis compounded by the Republican national convention. Also, Toby's brother, who had died earlier in that season, was an astronaut. It's also implied that this is another reason for leaking the information.