Until Jeffrey Toobin’s fateful appointment with Zoom on Oct. 15, his quarantine was going better than most people’s.

In August, his eighth book, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump,” about Robert Mueller’s inquiry into election meddling, was published, getting positive reviews and a brief berth on the New York Times best-seller list. His third, about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, is being filmed by Ryan Murphy for a limited series on FX.

And over on HBO, he was about to appear as himself on the whodunit “The Undoing,” delivering commentary on the murder trial that shapes the story’s arc.

Then in a matter of minutes, Mr. Toobin, 60, committed the act that would make him subject, not observer, of scandal, investigation and commentary. While working on a podcast about the presidential election for WNYC and The New Yorker with some of the magazine’s other well-known journalists, including Jane Mayer and Masha Gessen, he was seen lowering and raising his computer camera, exposing and touching his penis, and motioning an air kiss to someone other than his colleagues, Mx. Gessen said. The magazine suspended Mr. Toobin that day and executives began an investigation.