| Резюме: | The Senate on Wednesday voted to acquit President Donald Trump on both counts in his impeachment trial. Forty-eight senators, including one Republican, voted to convict Trump on a count of abuse of power, while 52, all Republicans, voted to acquit him. The president was also impeached on the charge of obstruction of Congress. The acquittal vote was the final step in a two-week trial marked by impassioned arguments from House Democrats that Trump was a danger to the nation, and stalwart support from Senate Republicans for a president who maintains a political stranglehold on their party. Sen. Mitt Romney, who delivered a searing condemnation of the president’s actions earlier in the day on the floor of the Senate, broke with his party to vote to convict Trump on the abuse of power count. The Democrat-led House voted on Dec. 18 to impeach Trump on two articles: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump was accused of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to announce probes into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about interference in the 2016 election, while withholding nearly $400 million in congressionally appropriated military aid to the country. Democrats say Trump was attempting to cheat in the 2020 election by coercing a foreign ally to smear his possible political opponent with the stain of a criminal probe. They also argue he obstructed Congress by refusing to hand over any documents in the House’s probe, and by pressuring potential witnesses not to comply. But with the outcome of the Senate trial all but certain since its first days, the suspense turned instead to an up-or-down vote late in the trial over whether or not to admit additional evidence, which only needed 51 votes to pass. For several days, Washington hung on the words of a handful of moderate senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who have broken with their parties on previous votes. Two Republicans voted with Democrats to admit additional evidence, Romney and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, and the measure was defeated. Unlike Romney, however, Collins ultimately voted to acquit Trump of the charges against him. Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s last minute announcement that he would vote to convict on both counts came as a surprise on Capitol Hill. Both sides, the White House and Democrats, had wanted to stake claim to a “bipartisan vote,” on their side. The president had sincerely hoped to convince at least one Democrat to vote to acquit him on at least one charge, so that the White House could have declared, technically accurately, that Trump had been acquitted by a bipartisan vote. Ultimately, only Democrats will be able to claim a “bipartisan vote,” having convinced Romney to cross party lines and vote to convict Trump on the first article. This scenario represents a reverse of the House impeachment vote in December, when no Republicans crossed party lines to vote with Democrats to impeach Trump, but several Republicans crossed lines to vote against the articles of impeachment. #BREAKING: President of The United States, Donald J. Trump, ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES In Senate Impeachment Trial — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 5, 2020 (AP)
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