Even the whistleblower will not bring Donald Trump any closer to impeachment

Editorial: The process is a difficult and lengthy one – and to remove a sitting president requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate

The Watergate-era phrase “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that gets you” springs readily to mind in the latest scandal to embarrass Donald Trump.

The “crime” itself is perhaps not the most serious that Mr Trump has been accused of, either in his political or in his business career. Complications surrounding his private life, tax affairs, relationship with Vladimir Putin, employment issues and much else have come and, occasionally, gone. Some of his increasingly bizarre tweets might be legally actionable, that is if they made any sense. Morally speaking, Mr Trump can safely be called a repeat offender.

Of course, as is being alleged, personally inducing a foreign power – Ukraine in this case – to gather damaging material on the son of a political opponent (Hunter Biden, son of Joe) is reprehensible. It is also, more to the point, unlawful to trade such intelligence for US tax dollars. Hence the calls for impeachment. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and the nearest thing the Democrats have to a leader, has picked her moment.