GOP-majority US Senate has voted to acquit US President Donald Trump of both articles of impeachment.
Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts started the vote Wednesday in the upper chamber of US Congress, where the president's supporters hold the majority.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney was the only one from his party to vote against the president at least in one of the articles.
The third president ever impeached in US history, Trump was acquitted of both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Far less than the two-third majority required to remove the president from office, the votes were, 52-48 and 53-47.
This terrible ordeal was always a campaign tactic to invalidate the 2016 votes of 63 million Americans and was a transparent effort to interfere with the 2020 election only nine months away.
— Brad Parscale - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@parscale) February 5, 2020
Full campaign statement: pic.twitter.com/ZwSphjRaXL
Trump’s reelection campaign has already started celebrating his acquittal as a victory against Democrats, who busy competing to beat the president in the 2020 presidential election.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2020
“The Senate having tried Donald John Trump, President of the United States, upon two articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the Senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein: it is, therefore, ordered and adjudged that the said Donald John Trump be, and he is hereby, acquitted of the charges in said articles,” said the Supreme Court chief justice.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Lindsey Graham and other Republicans had already said that their vote would not be impartial.
The president was acquitted by the vote exposed the depth of partisanship and dysfunction in the US political system.
Acquitted for life!
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) February 5, 2020
Trump was impeached after being accused of tying the Ukraine military aid to Kiev’s investigation of his political rivals.