Republicans clear final hurdle to acquittal, and other takeaways from impeachment today

The tenth full day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the US Senate has concluded. Here are five key takeaways:

No witnesses

The senators defeated a motion to allow subpoenas of witnesses and documents at the trial by a narrow 51-49 vote. Two Republicans crossed party lines to support Democrats’ call for witnesses: Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine.

It was the first presidential impeachment trial in which witnesses were not called, and it was on track to go down as the shortest such trial in history, by half.

The minority leader Chuck Schumer called the vote “a grand tragedy” and accused Republicans of “perfidy”.

“If the president is acquitted with no witnesses, with no documents, the acquittal will have no value, because America will know that the trial was not a real trial,” Schumer said.

Acquittal likely next week

Trump is likely to be acquitted on both articles of impeachment next week, making him the third president in US history to be impeached and then to escape removal from office.

After voting against witnesses, senators approved a plan for the final stages of the impeachment proceedings. The Senate is to reconvene at 11am on Monday and Trump is expected to be acquitted on Wednesday.

That’s later than Trump would have liked – the State of the Union address is on Tuesday night. But Trump’s acquittal did not seem in doubt.

Dire warnings

The witnesses question failed despite an 11th-hour plea by the lead House manager, Adam Schiff, for the Senate to fulfill its role as “the great anchor of the government”, in the words of President James Madison.

“There is a storm moving through this Capitol. Its wind are strong and they blow us in uncertain and dangerous directions,” Schiff said.

“Remove that anchor and we are adrift. But if we hold true, if we have faith that the ship of state can survive the truth, this storm shall pass.”

Evidence continues to emerge

A newly leaked excerpt from former national security adviser John Bolton’s book supported the central charge against Trump: that he conditioned military aid for Ukraine on the receipt by him of political favors.

Trump asked Bolton in a May meeting to contact the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and tell him to meet Rudy Giuliani, Bolton’s book says, according to a New York Times report. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was in charge of the in-country effort to make the Ukrainians understand what Trump wanted – and to deliver it.

Senators voted on Friday not to hear from Bolton.

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