Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial came to an end on Saturday after the Senate decided to acquit him on charges of incitement of insurrection largely along party lines following the Jan.6 riot.
The acquittal ultimately means that Trump will be allowed to run for federal office in the future.
As difficult as it was, House managers were only able to round up seven Republican votes to convict.
Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey all voted guilty.
“The stakes could not be higher,” House manager Joe Neguse, D-Colo argued. “Because the cold, hard truth is that what happened on January 6 can happen again. I fear, like many of you do, that the violence we saw on that terrible day may be just the beginning.”
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, D-Md asked Senators to consider the future – “This trial is about who we are, who we are,” Raskin said.
Despite Democrat’s efforts, the votes to convict still fell short. According to NBC News, sixty-seven votes were needed to secure a conviction, yet the final vote was 57 to 43.
The former president could do nothing but praise his legal team, who argued that he was nothing but a “victim of vengeful Democrats and a biased news media.” The trial was a “charade from beginning to end,” Trump’s lawyer Michael van der Veen said.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who sent out an email earlier on Saturday sharing his decision to vote to acquit Trump became he was already out of office, implied it’s very likely Trump will face charges later on.
“The Constitution makes perfectly clear that Presidential criminal misconduct while in office can be prosecuted after the President has left office, which in my view alleviates the otherwise troubling ‘January exception’ argument raised by the House.”
Aforementioned, this concludes Trump’s second impeachment trial. There have only been four in U.S. history thus far.
No president has ever been convicted.
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