Senate finds President Trump not guilty on both articles of impeachment

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

From the Cox Media Group National Content Desk:

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to acquit President Donald Trump on charges he abused his power when he asked the president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into a political rival.The impeachment vote, only the third in the country’s history, ended as the previous two did with an acquittal of the president.Utah Sen. Mitt Romney broke ranks with Republicans and voted to acquit Trump on the first of the two articles of impeachment, abuse of power. That vote was 52-48.The second article, obstruction of Congress, fell strictly along party lines 53-47.After a months-long investigation, an impeachment on two charges, a Senate trial and Wednesday’s final vote, the result was all but a foregone conclusion -- Donald Trump will still be the president of the United States on Thursday.Trump was impeached in December by the House on charges he pressured Ukraine to announced an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter by dangling a White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the release of military aid that had been held back.

Live updates

Thanks all around

4:39 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: McConnell and Schumer thank the Senate pages and the chief justice.

Roberts reads a statement thanking the Senate parliamentarian and her deputy and all the senators. He invites them to drop by the Supreme Court to see an argument or “to escape one.”

Not guilty on the second article

4:30 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: On a vote of 53-47, the Senate finds that Trump is not guilty of the second impeachment article.

Romney voted for the second article of impeachment. No one else changed his or her vote from their vote on the first article.

The second article is being read

4:20 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: The Senate clerk is reading the second article of impeachment. Sen. Romney was the only Republican to vote guilty for the first article.

Not guilty on the first article

4:16 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: On a vote of 52-48, the Senate finds that Trump is not guilty of impeachment article one.

Chief Justice calls for the vote

4:10 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: The vote has begun on the first article of impeachment. Each senator is standing to give their "guilty or not guilty" verdict.

The articles are being read

4:05 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: The first article of impeachment is being read now.

A break before the vote

4 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: The Senate is in recess for a short period.

Schumer ends and McConnell begins

3:49 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020: Schumer ends his comments, saying "These are the excuses of a child."

“The U.S. Senate was made for a moment like,” McConnell says. “We will reject this incoherent case that comes nowhere near justifying the first presidential removal in the country’s history.”

McConnell says the Democrats decided that “defeat means the whole system is broken.” He says within months after the election, Hillary Clinton and “a former U.S. president” decried the results of the election, calling it illegitimate.

“They still don’t accept the American voters’ decision,” McConnell said. “Heads, we win, tails, you cheated,” he said of Democrats’ reaction to losing the 2016 presidential election.