Senate Acquits Trump on Impeachment Charges

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts presides over the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

By The Stream Published on February 5, 2020

As was expected, the Senate voted today to acquit President Donald Trump on two impeachment charges from the House. He is the third president in the country to survive the challenge, after presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. President Richard Nixon resigned before the impeachment proceedings started, believing he would not beat them.

Article 1 charged Trump with abuse of power. Two-thirds of the Senate was necessary to convict him. He was acquitted along almost a completely party line vote of 52 to 48. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the only senator to deviate from his party, voting to convict. Romney has had a contentious relationship with Trump in recent years and opposed him on several issues. He said his vote was based on an β€œinescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it.”

Article II charged Trump with obstruction of Congress. That vote went down on party lines, 53-47.

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The impeachment proceedings began last fall after an informant who worked at the White House claimed that Trump unlawfully asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, for landing a $50,000/mth job with a Ukrainian energy company when he had no experience. Trump was also accused of attempting to withhold funding for Ukraine if Hunter wasn’t investigated. The Ukrainian president denied any of it ever happened.

The Democratic-controlled House conducted an investigation and voted to impeach Trump in December. There was testimony from several witnesses. The Senate trial did not have any witnesses since the Republican-controlled chamber declined to approve them. Some Democrats say it’s not over yet and may try to impeach Trump again.

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