After the former F.B.I. director put a picture on Instagram of seashells arranged to say “86 47,” law enforcement tailed his car and tracked his cellphone, steps usually reserved for serious threats.
James B. Comey in 2019. President Trump fired him as F.B.I. director in May 2017, amid the agency’s investigation into possible collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligences’s Russia Investigation Task Force in May 2017.