Impeachment: US Senate acquits Donald Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress

Donald Trump will address the nation early on Friday (AEDT) after being acquitted on both articles of impeachment.

Donald Trump will address the nation early on Friday morning (AEDT) after he was acquitted of both counts of impeachment in the Senate, bringing an end to the most partisan and bitter impeachment trial in US history.

The Senate voted 52 To 48 to acquit Mr Trump on the first charge of abuse of power and 53 to 47 votes to acquit him on obstruction of Congress

The acquittal vote was almost completely along party lines but the president was denied his hope of unanimous verdict among Republicans when Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, voted to convict the president for abuse of power.

“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” Senator Romney said on the Senate floor shortly before the final vote. “What the president did was wrong, grievously wrong.”

Mr Trump’s hopes of enticing a Democrat to acquit him failed when leading moderate Senator Joe Manchin, from the pro-Trump state of West Virginia, announced he would vote to convict the president after “agonising” about it for days.

“Voting whether or not to remove a sitting President has been a truly difficult decision, and after listening to the arguments presented by both sides, I have reached my conclusion reluctantly,” Senator Manchin. “For the reasons above I must vote yes on the articles of impeachment. I take no pleasure in these votes, and am saddened this is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.”

The vote to acquit Mr Trump on both counts of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress fell far short of the two-third majority, or 67 votes, that were needed to convict Mr Trump and remove him from office.

Soon after he was acquitted, Mr Trump tweeted: “Trump 4EVA.”

pic.twitter.com/JDS4zUXXJG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2020

He also tweeted that he would be making a public statement on the impeachment from the White House on Thursday local time (4am Friday AEDT).

I will be making a public statement tomorrow at 12:00pm from the @WhiteHouse to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2020

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said the acquittal would end the “attack on our institutions” which Democrats had launched because they could not accept the verdict of the people at the ballot box.

“We will reject this incoherent case that comes nowhere near justifying the first president removal in history,’ he told the Senate shortly before the vote.

“This is precisely the kind of recklessness the Senate was created to stop...we simply canot let factional fever break our institutions.”

As Republicans celebrated Mr Trump’s acquittal, the phrase “Acquitted for life!” appeared on Twitter feeds, including those of Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Mr McCarthy was also filmed appearing to tear up the impeachment papers, parodying Nancy Pelosi controversially ripping up the State of the Union address the previous day.

Acquitted for life. pic.twitter.com/HgqBXwpoWK

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) February 5, 2020

Democrat Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer told the Senate the trial was a “sham” and that Americans would see through its decision to acquit Mr Trump.

“The verdict of this kangaroo court will be meaningless,” Senator Schumer said. “The Republican majority refused to get the evidence because they were afraid of what it might show.”

“You cannot be on the side of this president and be on the side of truth.” he said. “And if we are to survive as a nation, we must be on the side of truth.”

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declares the Donald Trump acquitted of the first impeachment charge. Picture: AFP.

The acquittal, which follows similar Senate acquittals of Bill Clinton in 1999 and Andrew Johnson in 1868, means that no president as ever been removed from office by impeachment.

However Richard Nixon resigned as president in 1974 before the House could impeach him after being told his impeachment and conviction were inevitable.

The easy acquittal of the president after a short trial by the Republican-controlled Senate was another example of the highly partisan nature of this impeachment.

The Democrat-controlled House initiated the process in September, eventually impeaching the president along party lines in December for using US military aid to Ukraine to pressure that government into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The House then charged Mr Trump with obstruction of Congress for blocking witnesses and documents during the House impeachment inquiry.

Senators vote on Donald Trump’s impeachment. Picture AFP.

Mr Trump has denied all along that he did anything wrong and has accused the Democrats of mounting a sham political witch hunt to overturn his election victory in 2016.

Democrats allege that Mr Trump’s actions amount to the ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ specified in the Constitution as a reason to impeach a president and remove him from office.

Democrats also alleged that the Senate trial was not a fair trial because Senators voted to block the introduction of new witnesses and new evidence.

Several Republican Senators were critical of the president’s actions with the Ukraine but argued that his wrongdoing did not rise to the level that would justify his removal from office.

‘The president’s actions were shameful and wrong. His personal interests do not take precedence over those of this great nation,’ the moderate Republican Senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski said. But she added “I cannot vote to convict. The Constitution provides for impeachment but does not demand it in all instances.”

Another moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, who voted along with Senator Romney for new witnesses during the trial, also decided to vote for acquittal.

“I do not believe that the House has met its burden of showing that the president’s conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office,’ she said.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia