It is both extraordinary and unsettling to see leaders of two of the world’s largest advanced democracies facing accusations of abusing executive power. Hours after Tuesday’s UK Supreme Court ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully in suspending parliament for five weeks, the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped a bombshell. The House launched an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump over claims that the US president sought a foreign power’s help in the 2020 election.
There are crucial differences. Judgment has been issued on Mr Johnson; the investigation into Mr Trump is just beginning. The allegations against the US president are, moreover, far graver than those against the British premier.
Questions over Mr Trump’s conduct swirled well before he became president. The Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign made clear the Kremlin worked to help Mr Trump’s prospects and that his campaign knew it was benefiting from the effort, though the probe could not establish that the two sides were guilty of collusion. It found the president had constantly tried to derail the inquiry.