President Trump acquittal now likely Wednesday; Senate nixes witnesses
WASHINGTON — The Senate narrowly rejected Democratic demands to summon witnesses for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial late Friday, all but ensuring Trump’s acquittal in just the third trial to threaten a president’s removal in U.S. history. But senators moved to push off final voting on his fate to next Wednesday.
The delay in timing showed the weight of a historic vote bearing down on senators, despite prodding by the president eager to have acquittal behind him in an election year and ahead of his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
Under an agreement to be voted on Friday night, the trial would resume Monday for final arguments, with time Monday and Tuesday for senators to speak. The final voting would be Wednesday, the day after Trump’s speech.
Trump’s acquittal appeared all but set after a hard-fought effort to allow new witness es was defeated 51-49 on a near party-line vote. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with the Democrats, but that was not enough.
Despite the Democrats singular focus on hearing new testimony, the Republican majority brushed past those demands to make this the first impeachment trial without witnesses. Even new revelations Friday from former national security adviser John Bolton did not sway GOP senators, who said they’d heard enough.
That means the eventual outcome for Trump will be an acquittal “in name only,” said Rep. Val Demings, Dfla., a House prosecutor, during final debate.