Washington DC stood still as Special Counsel Robert Mueller – now a household name thanks to his lead role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election – was sworn in to testify on his findings. To say he was a reluctant witness on Wednesday would be an understatement; one of the few times he broke his rigid silence over the past few years was to clarify he did not intend to say any more about his final report.

Robert Mueller, former special counsel, appears before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Credit:Bloomberg

The result was a day of wooden back-and-forth about genuinely shocking events, from President Trump’s steady efforts to derail the investigation to a detailed look at how extensive Russian interference was, and how little has been done to prevent a repeat in 2020. Yet the hearing itself did not upend politics in the US: Republicans were gleeful, Democrats morose, and journalists bored.

That’s because, as has happened time and again in the three years since Donald Trump won the presidency, expectations were wildly out of step with reality. And not just with the reality of our current moment, when the guard rails have been removed and political norms shattered. Special investigations into presidential misconduct have an aura of administration-crippling power, but in reality, are only as strong as the public and political appetite for them.