The Senate voted Wednesday afternoon to acquit President Donald John Trump on the first of two articles of impeachment.
The vote was 52-48 for acquittal on the first article, for “abuse of power,” with only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), crossing party lines.
US Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lamar Alexander (R) (R-TN) are seen ahead of US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The vote was 53-47 for acquittal on the second article, for “obstruction of Congress,” with Romney voting “not guilty.”
The Chief Justice presided over the final vote, and after the clerk read each article of impeachment, each Senator stood in his or her place and responded “guilty” or “not guilty.”
With the “not guilty” vote of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), the president was acquitted of the first article, as he passed the 34-vote threshold necessary to defeat a two-thirds vote of those president, as required by the Constitution for conviction and removal.
Sen. Moran cast the decisive vote to acquit on the second article of impeachment as well.
This story is developing.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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