US President Donald Trump on Wednesday was acquitted of impeachment charges in the US Senate.
With US Chief Justice John Roberts presiding, senators sworn to do “impartial justice” stood and stated their votes for the roll call — “guilty” or “not guilty” — in a swift tally.
Trump shall “be, and is hereby, acquitted of the charges,” Roberts said.
Photo: Reuters
What started as Trump’s request for Ukraine to “do us a favor” spun into a far-reaching, 28,000-page report compiled by US House of Representatives investigators accusing the US president of engaging in shadow diplomacy that they said threatened US foreign relations for personal, political gain as he asked Ukraine to investigate former US vice president Joe Biden ahead of the presidential election in November.
Trump had predicted vindication and used it in his re-election bid.
Trump said that the investigation was a “witch hunt” by those out to get him from the start of his presidency and an extension of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian campaign interference in 2016.
Trump’s political campaign tweeted videos, statements and a cartoon dance celebration, while the president himself tweeted that he was to speak yesterday from the White House about “our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax.”
US Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the “the cloud over the presidency has been removed.”
Graham announced that his own committee would continue to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former US president Joe Biden, who has faced criticism over his role on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that has been accused of corruption, while his father oversaw US policy on Ukraine.
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there would always be “a giant asterisk next to the president’s acquittal” because of the quick trial in the Senate and Republicans’ rejection of witnesses.
“More is going to come out every day, indeed it has come out every day and every week,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said.
Schiff, the House’s lead impeachment manager, said that no final decisions have been made on whether to subpoena Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, in the House after the Senate voted not to hear witnesses.
“The president’s basic lack of character, his willingness to cheat in the election — he’s not going to stop,” Schiff said. “It’s not going to change, which means that we are going to have to remain eternally vigilant.”
Bolton has a book that is scheduled for release next month.
A majority of senators expressed unease with Trump’s pressure on Ukraine that resulted in the two articles of impeachment, but two-thirds of them would have had to vote “guilty” to reach the US constitution’s bar of high crimes and misdemeanors to convict and remove Trump from office.
The final tallies fell far short.
On the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, the vote was 52-48 favoring acquittal. The second, obstruction of Congress, also produced a not-guilty verdict, 53-47.
All Democrats found the president guilty on the two charges.
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