The Senate has acquitted President Donald J. Trump on both articles of Impeachment, the charge of abuse of power, the first article of impeachment Wednesday in a 52-48 vote.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts read the results of the vote.
In the second of the two impeachment votes, the Republican-controlled Senate cleared the Republican president of Democrats’ accusations that he obstructed Congress’ investigation into whether he acted improperly in withholding U.S. security aid to Ukraine.
The Senate’s 53-47 vote on the second article of impeachment brought the proceedings to an end.
But the guilty votes had a pinch of bipartisanship: less than two hours before the vote, Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday he would vote to remove Trump from office on the House’s charge of abuse of power, making the Utah Republican the first senator in US history to vote to convict a president from the same party in an impeachment trial.
Every Democrat voted to convict the President.
Romney said on the Senate floor that Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust” when he pressured Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden while withholding US security aid.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York accused McConnell and his GOP colleagues of sweeping Trump’s misconduct under the rug. “The administration, its top people and Senate Republicans are all hiding the truth,“ Schumer said, adding that Trump tried to “blackmail a foreign country to interfere in our elections.“
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., again proved himself Trump’s most important ally.
He led a drive to deny Democrats any opportunity to call witnesses before the Senate and worked closely with the White House in shepherding the case to acquittal, fulfilling a pledge he made before the trial to “take my cues from the president’s lawyers.”
McConnell slammed House Democrats’ drive to impeach Trump as “the most rushed, least fair and least thorough“ in history.
He said the two impeachment charges against Trump _ that he abused his power and obstructed Congress’ ensuing investigation _ are “constitutionally incoherent” and don’t “even approach a case for the first presidential removal in American history.”
