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Former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate Saturday of charges of encouraging the Jan.6 assault on the Capitol. This is the second time that the Republican politician goes through an impeachment process, a first in the history of the United States, but, as in the case of the first trial, in 2019, he was acquitted by the vote of a senator.
The Senate voted 57 votes in favor of Trump’s conviction on Saturday, compared with 43 votes against, but a guilty verdict required at least 67 votes.
Only seven Republican senators – Sasse, Romney, Burr, Collins, Murkowski, Toomey and Cassidy – joined Democrats in voting to convict the former president.
The United States Senate has 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, the balance of power is tilted, in the case of equality, by the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat), who is also president of the Senate.
The verdict in the Senate came Saturday, in record time, after just five days. It was the shortest impeachment process in US history, as the proceedings began in the Senate on January 9.
Donald Trump is the only US president to have been indicted twice for his actions as head of the White House.
Donald Trump ended his term as president on January 20, 2021, after losing the November 3, 2020 election to Joe Biden. However, a week earlier, on January 13, he was indicted (impeachment procedure) by vote of the House of Representatives.
Donald Trump has been tried on charges of incitement to the Jan.6 assault on Capitol Hill. “Incitement to insurrection” was the official wording of the indictment.
Donald Trump is the first president of the United States to face two impeachments and the first president to be tried in the Senate. after the expiration of the mandate. This unique situation has given rise to interpretations of constitutionality, since the purpose of an accusation process, in the case of a conviction in the Senate, is the removal of the high official who is being processed.
Donald Trump went through another impeachment proceeding in 2019, but at the end of the Senate trial, after nearly three weeks, he was acquitted. He was later charged with “obstruction of Congress” and “abuse of power” for allegedly tried to blackmail the president of Ukraine to obtain compromising information about Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent in the presidential elections.
Donald Trump is the third US president to go through such an impeachment proceeding, but he is the only one who has been succeeded twice.
Editor: Luana Pavaluca
