No surprise….
The defendant owned the jury….
Republicans , except for Mitt Romney stick with Trump……
The Senate on Wednesday acquitted President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment, rejecting the House’s charges that he should be removed from office for abusing his power and obstructing the congressional investigation into his conduct.
The vote capped a frenetic four-month push by House Democrats to investigate and impeach Trump for allegedly withholding U.S. military aid from Ukraine to pressure its leaders to investigate his Democratic rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden. The impeachment articles also charged Trump with obstructing the House’s investigation into the matter.
The first article, abuse of power, failed 48-52 — well short of the 67-vote super-majority required to remove Trump from office. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was the lone Republican to vote in favor of the abuse of power charge. The second article, obstruction of Congress, failed 47-53 — a party-line vote. All Democratic senators voted to convict Trump on both counts.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who presided over just the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, announced the result on each article of impeachment Wednesday afternoon, bringing the three-week trial to a close.
“The Senate, having tried Donald 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,” Roberts said.
The Senate’s verdict was the climax of a three-year existential threat to the Trump presidency that began with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in May 2017 and continued with the House’s Ukraine probe, which began in September. And it comes just days after the first votes were cast in the 2020 presidential campaign.
Trump’s acquittal marked the end of a remarkable chapter of presidential scandal that only accelerated and accentuated Trump’s grip on a Republican Party establishment he once scorned. But it appears likely to bleed into another phase, as House Democrats vow to continue their myriad ongoing probes targeting the president.
Trump immediately celebrated the outcome of the impeachment inquiry — which he has labeled a collective “witch hunt” and “hoax.” Within minutes of his acquittal, Trump tweeted a parody video joking that he would be president forever….
Note…
The linked part of this post haas been changed due to updates and links…
image…Politico
Susan Collins is walking back her comments that Trump “learned his lesson” after Trump himself said he has nothing to learn. It was a perfect call.
No one that gullible should be in any government office-much less the US Senate.
Since you won’t retire yourself Susan time to fire you.
She’s very concerned!! She broke her pearls.
Today, the Senate concluded its impeachment trial of President Trump. After listening to the impeachment managers and the President’s defense team, and carefully weighing the overwhelming evidence that was presented, I voted to find President Trump guilty on both articles of impeachment. I believe there would have been even more evidence to support this conclusion, but the Senate was denied the opportunity to see relevant documents and hear from firsthand witnesses.
This was not a decision I made lightly, and I took no pleasure in it. However, based on the evidence, I concluded that the President’s actions posed an ongoing threat to our democracy and warranted his impeachment and removal from office. Our President asked a foreign leader to announce a sham investigation into his political rival and withheld critical U.S. military aid in an effort to secure that investigation. He then obstructed the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry – refusing to allow relevant witnesses to testify or produce key documents and emails. To this day, the information blockade continues. These actions constitute abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Before the votes, I spoke in more detail on the Senate floor about my reflections on the impeachment trial. You can read my remarks at https://go.senate.gov/X15V or watch them at https://go.senate.gov/YW11.
Despite the outcome of the Senate vote, we must now look to the future and redouble our efforts to deliver on good governance for our country. I will continue my work to meet the needs and priorities of Rhode Islanders, like rebuilding our roads and schools, protecting affordable access to health care, and creating more decent-paying jobs across the state. And we must all work to build a better, stronger America together.
Jack Reed
United States Senator
(Rhode Island)
GOP senators request Hunter Biden’s travel records from Secret Service after Senate acquittal vote
From CNN’s Caroline Kelly
Two Republican Senate committee chairmen requested Hunter Biden’s travel information from when his father, Joe Biden, was vice president from the Secret Service director on Wednesday following the Senate’s vote to acquit in the impeachment trial of President Trump.
Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, announced in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray that their panels “are reviewing potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration.”
“We write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and Ukraine,” the chairmen wrote, referencing a firm co-founded by Hunter Biden.
Some context: The chairmen’s timing is notable, as the impeachment trial centered largely on Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, his potential political rival.
Trump has repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the Bidens acted improperly in Ukraine.
CNN has reached out to the Secret Service for comment. A spokesperson for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign declined to comment.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-impeachment-trial-02-05-20/index.html
And some people get offended when I say that Republicans are evil.
Not me….
A LOT qualify for stupid….
Some Republicans are not evil, just stupid. But the actions of Grassley and Johnson are more likely evil – as I suspect they know better. It is possible that Grassley is so old that he just can’t think straight. Who knows?
Although I will now concede that Romney is neither evil nor stupid.
Still believe he is misguided on other issues.
Pentagon officials stunned by White House decision to block Ukraine aid, new emails show
By Vivian Salama, CNN
Updated 12:01 PM ET, Wed February 5, 2020
Washington (CNN)Days before the July 2019 call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, US officials were still working to expedite the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles to the country, according to emails and other internal documents reviewed by CNN.
The new information underscores how the July 18th decision to hold the military aid stunned officials, who had already assessed Ukraine deserved to receive it and were preparing a Javelin missile order as well. The decision reverberated across the government for weeks. Officials grew so concerned over the deferrals by the Office of Management and Budget that they noted the aid was at “serious risk,” and questioned if the move was illegal.
In an email to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who was in his first week on the job, a top Defense official communicated his concern over Trump’s “reported view that the US should cease providing security assistance” to Ukraine and its impact on national security.
Defense officials hoped Esper might be able to persuade the President to drop the hold, and included their rationale in briefing notes provided to him for an August meeting at the White House.
The documents reviewed by CNN — none of which revealed classified information on military operations or sensitive personnel matters — are linked to communications and meetings from July and August last year related to the aid freeze that was at the center of efforts to impeach Trump. The documents paint a broad picture of bureaucrats scrambling to understand and push back against a sudden, unexplained White House directive that disrupted months of careful planning, contradicted Pentagon decisions based on US national security concerns and undermined Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia.
The revelations follow a refusal by the Department of Justice last week to disclose two dozen emails which it said should remain confidential because they describe “communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President’s immediate advisors regarding Presidential decision-making about the scope, duration, and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine.”
Democratic House impeachment investigators have repeatedly highlighted OMB’s refusal to turn over any documents when subpoenaed during the probe and suggested that emails may exist showing acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s role in passing along the President’s order to halt the aid to Ukraine….
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/politics/emails-pentagon-alarm-ukraine-aid/index.html