Republican Senator Mitt Romney broke ranks and joining the Democrats in voting the President "guilty", however, the President was still acquitted.
The US Senate on Thursday acquitted President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Trump presidency was thus saved by his fellow Republicans in the upper house of the US Congress, who rallied to protect him in the impeachment trial nine months before Trump asks voters in a deeply divided America to give him a second White House term.
On the article of impeachment on abuse of power, the Senate found the President not guilty by a vote of 52-48, with Republican Senator Mitt Romney breaking ranks and joining the Democrats in voting the President guilty. On the article of obstruction of Congress, the Senate found him not guilty by a vote of 53-47.
Donald Trump thus survived the third presidential impeachment trial in US history - just like the two other impeached presidents - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Clinton and Johnson, as well, were impeached but later acquitted in their Senate trial.
On being acquitted in the Senate, President Trump took to Twitter to repost a video of a Time magazine cover showing his campaign signs from the future years.
The US President also said that he will be making a public statement tomorrow at 12 PM from the White House to discuss the "country's victory on the impeachment hoax".
Reacting to Trump being acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the entire process an act of "lawlessness". In a statement released shortly afterward, Pelosi said, "...the Senate chose instead to ignore the facts, the will of the American people and their duty to the Constitution."
According to a reportage by CNN, Pelosi further added, "The President will boast that he has been acquitted. There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence. By suppressing the evidence and rejecting the most basic elements of a fair judicial process, the Republican Senate made themselves willing accomplices to the President’s cover-up."
However, for all intents and purposes, it is now a historical fact that US President Donald Trump will remain impeached forever, as the process of acquittal doesn't alter the fact that he was impeached from his post in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives on December 19, a black day for anyone of his rank.
On that day, the Democrat-led House of Representatives had passed the abuse of power article of impeachment on a largely party-line 230-197 vote. The House then proceeded with a vote on the second article of impeachment charging him with obstruction of Congress.
Following this, the trial was held today in the Republican-led Senate - a friendlier House for Trump - on whether to convict him and remove him from office. For Trump to be removed from his office, that would have required a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate, meaning at least 20 Republicans would have had to join Democrats in voting against Trump - and suffice to say, that did not happen.
No US President has ever been removed from office via the impeachment process set out in the US Constitution.
The Democrats have, however, vowed to continue investigating Trump and his administration.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi had initiated the process of impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump after a whistleblower alleged that the US President may have withheld military aid to Ukraine as a means of pressurizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on two counts - firstly, to pursue investigations on Trump's political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and secondly, to float the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind his 2016 Presidential campaign.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Washington:")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}