[ad_1]
- In the impeachment process against Donald Trump, the United States Senate acquitted the former president of the charge of “inciting a riot.”
- A majority of 57 senators voted against the Republican, but they failed the two-thirds majority of the 67 votes needed for a Senate conviction.
- 50 Democrats and seven Republicans voted to convict Trump.
Democrats had launched impeachment proceedings over Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6. They also wanted to make sure that the president, who has since stepped down, is barred from future political office at the federal level.
This would have made it impossible for Trump to run again for president in the 2024 election.
The so-called impeachment process has been in the Senate since Tuesday. The House of Congress assumed the role of a tribunal.
Although many Republicans also criticized Trump for his role in the events of January 6, a conviction seemed unlikely. To do this, 17 Republicans would have had to join the 50 Democrats.
Confusion by witness hearings
Ahead of the Senate vote, Chief Prosecutor Jamie Raskin said Saturday that the burden of proof for Trump’s responsibility for his supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 was “overwhelming and irrefutable.” Congressman Joe Neguse warned that the violence “could only have been the beginning.”
However, Trump’s lawyer and defense attorney, Michael van der Veen, described the former president as innocent: “At no time have you heard anything that could be construed as encouragement or approval for a riot by Mr. Trump,” any claim to the contrary is “absurd”.
Legend:
Keystone
Probably also due to the low probability of a Trump conviction, the Senate completed the proceedings in record time and waived the hearing of additional witnesses and evidence.
Senators on Saturday voted to question witnesses, briefly causing confusion and ultimately being rejected.
Both parties had an interest in bringing the impeachment to a speedy conclusion. Democrats wanted to prevent the trial from overshadowing the start of President Joe Biden’s term and blocking the Senate. For Republicans, a lengthy process didn’t seem desirable either: They want to start the post-Trump era.
Storm in the Capitol
On January 6, supporters of President-elect Trump violently stormed the Capitol in Washington. Congress met there to officially confirm the electoral victory of Trump’s successor, Biden.
Five people were killed in the riots, including a police officer. Trump had incited his supporters immediately before they had stolen his election victory. Among other things, he said: “If you don’t fight like the devil, you will have no more land.”
Trump never admitted defeat in the November 3 US election. Months before the vote, he had already spoken of large-scale voter fraud without evidence. He and his Republicans ruled their claims in dozens of courts. Trump’s defense attorney, van der Veen, refused to admit the former president’s electoral defeat on Friday. The question was “irrelevant” to the process, he said.
For Trump, it was already the second impeachment process he had to face. In the first political trial he had to answer in the so-called Ukraine affair for abuse of power and obstruction of congressional investigations. In February 2020, however, he was finally cleared of all charges by the Senate.
