How the United States Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump
The Republican dominated Senate of the United States has voted 52-48, to acquit President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress. The acquittal ends the attempt to remove Donald Trump from office as President of the United States.
Trump was accused of pressuring Ukraine to dig up damaging information on Democratic party presidential aspirant in 2020, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. He was also accused of withholding $400m of military aid to Ukraine and blocking a White House meeting for Ukraine’s president.
According to the U.S. democrats, trumps actions amounts to an abuse of presidential power, using the office for personal political gain and to the detriment of national security.
The impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, occurred on December 18, 2019, when the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The impeachment Process had started with a formal complaint from a whistleblower – an unnamed intelligence official who wrote a letter expressing concern about Mr Trump’s 25 July call with President Volodymyr Zelensky – kicked off the impeachment process in early September.
A rough transcript of the call revealed that Mr Trump had urged President Zelensky to investigate discredited allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden.
Under the U.S. Constitution, a two-thirds majority of the Senate is required to convict the president. The possible penalties are the removal from office and disqualification from holding office in the future. On February 5, 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on both counts.
Interestingly, Mitt Romney became the first U.S. senator in history from an impeached president’s party to vote to convict, voting ‘guilty’ on the first count.