Washington, February 13 The U.S. Senate held a final vote on former President Trump’s impeachment case on the 13th local time.
In the end, with 57 votes in favor and 43 against, it failed to pass the “sedition” impeachment clause, and Trump was not convicted.
Under the U.S. Constitution, only more than two-thirds of senators believe that the president is guilty in an impeachment vote will the president be convicted.
In the vote that day, in addition to 50 Democrats, seven Republican lawmakers voted in favor, failing to reach the 67 votes needed to convict the president, and Trump was acquitted.
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Schumer made a speech saying that although Trump was not convicted by the Senate in the end, the number of votes in favor of his guilt was the highest number of votes in history for presidential impeachment, and that “public opinion and historical evaluation will criminalize Trump”.
In his speech, Republican McConnell, the Senate minority leader who voted Trump innocent, said that Trump should be held “in terms of factual and morally” for the violent attack on Congress on January 6, “there is no doubt”.
McConnell also said that if Trump was still president, he would seriously consider voting for his guilt, but Trump is not the current president at present, and that it is “unconstitutional” to convict Trump.
Trump then issued a statement expressing gratitude to his team of lawyers, saying that “I always support the rule of law, law enforcement personnel and the peaceful voice of the American people”.
At the beginning of the trial that day, the House impeachment manager asked for a summons of witnesses on the grounds of new evidence. Subsequently, the Senate passed the prosecution’s call for a witness request by 55 votes to 45.
Defense Trump lawyer objected, saying that if the prosecution summons witnesses, the defense may call 100 witnesses.
Eventually, after consultation between the leaders of the two parties and the prosecution and the defense, it was decided not to call witnesses, but to record new evidence so as not to delay the trial.
In the final summary statement of the prosecution and the defense, the prosecution’s impeachment manager believes that Trump should be impeached because of inciting his supporters to violently attack Congress, causing harm to “democracy and the people”.
Defense Trump lawyers said they also thought what happened on January 6 was “bad”, but they had no direct contact with Trump, whose speech on that day was his “freedom of speech”.
On January 6, during the congressional count of presidential election votes, Trump supporters violently stormed Congress, killing at least five people. On January 13, the House of Representatives voted to formally impeach Trump by passing the “sedition” impeachment clause.
On February 9, the Senate officially began to hear the impeachment of Trump.
The impeachment trial lasted five days, which was the shortest presidential impeachment trial in American history and the only impeachment trial against a former president.
Trump also became the only (former) president in American history who was twice impeached and acquitted twice.
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