JUST IN: Trump’s Second Impeachment: US Senate Has Vote To Acquit Trump

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial moved toward its conclusion on Saturday as the roll was called.

The nine House impeachment managers presenting the charge against the former president argue that he betrayed his oath of office by inciting his followers to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump’s lawyers counter that he didn’t encourage clash and simply exercised his First Amendment rights.

Senate Has Votes to Acquit Trump

The Senate has the votes to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial, as the roll call continued. Republicans reached the 34 votes they needed to block a conviction in the divided Senate.

What did Trump’s lawyer say?

“No matter how much truly horrifying footage we see of the conduct of the rioters, and how much emotion has been injected into this trial, that does not change the fact that Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,” Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen said in his closing argument.

“Despite all of the video played, at no point in their presentation did you hear the House managers play a single example of Mr. Trump urging anyone to engage in violence of any kind,” he said, calling the Democrats’ claims “false and defamatory.”

Although van der Veen said there’s no excuse for the “depraved rioters” at the Capitol, he said Democratic political leaders “spent the six months immediately prior to the Capitol assault giving rhetorical aid and comfort to mobs, making excuses for rioters, celebrating radicalism and explaining that angry, frustrated and marginalized people were entitled to blow off steam like that.”

Trump’s reaction according to a lawmaker

Trump “has remained silent about what he was doing during one of the bloodiest attacks on our Capitol since 1812,” Representative David Cicilline, one of the House impeachment managers, said as the Democrats made their closing argument in the impeachment trial.

He said “no one is suggesting that President Trump intended every detail of what happened on January 6. But when he directed the sea of thousands before him who were reportedly ready to engage in real violence, when he told that crowd to fight like hell, he incited violence targeted at the Capitol, and he most certainly foresaw it,” Cicilline stated.

Cicilline also said Trump “did nothing” to help Vice President Mike Pence who was among the intended targets of the mob of Trump supporters enraged that Pence was presiding over the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

Senate Moves to the Closing Arguments

The Senate moved to closing arguments in the impeachment trial, starting with lead House manager Jamie Raskin summarizing the case against Trump.

After arguments from Raskin and Trump’s lawyers, the Senate can decide if it wishes to hold a closed session to discuss the evidence before a final vote.

“We’ve offered you overwhelming and irrefutable –- and certainly unrefuted — evidence that former President Trump incited this insurrection,” Raskin said. “The evidence, the video, documentary, eyewitnesses have only grown stronger and stronger and more detailed right up until today — right up to 10 minutes ago — over the course of this Senate trial.”

Deal Reached to Avert Calling Witnesses

House impeachment managers dropped their request to obtain testimony from Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler after senators agreed instead to enter into the record an account of her secondhand account of a phone call between Trump and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.

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The accord averted the prospect of a cavalcade of requests for testimony from both sides that could have extended the impeachment trial beyond its expected conclusion later on Saturday.

Senators in both parties said negotiations were underway to find a deal on calling witnesses after the Senate’s surprise vote in favor of seeking more evidence. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said a deal had been reached, although he offered no details.

Republican Senator Mike Braun said members of his party are prepared to allow a news article into the record about Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler’s secondhand account of a phone call between Trump and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in exchange for Democrats dropping their request to depose Herrera Beutler. Then the trial would proceed to closing arguments and a final vote later on Saturday.

It’s not clear Democrats would accept such a deal. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he expects a bipartisan deal to be worked out in a few hours — or the Senate would face a series of votes on witness requests.

Bloomberg