ARABIA 5AM NEWS

Donald Trump on Saturday was acquitted by the US Senate in his second impeachment trial in 12 months, as his fellow Republicans shielded him from accountability for the deadly assault by his supporters on the US Capital,  a shrine of American democracy.

The US Senate voted of 57-43 fell short of the two – third majority needed to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after a five – day trial in the same building ransacked by his followers on Jan.6 shortly after they heard him deliver an incendiary speech.

House Democrats began wrapping up their impeachment case against Trump on Saturday after a tumultuous morning in which they gave a last – minute plan for witness testimony that could have  significantly prolonged the trial and delayed a vote on whether the former president the incited the deadly Capitol insurrection. 

An unexpected morning vote in favor of hearing witnesses threw the trial into confusion just as it was on the verge of concluding. But both sides ultimately reached a deal to instead enter into the record a statement from a Republican House lawmaker about a heated phone call on the day of the riot between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that Democrats say established Trump’s indifference to the violence.

The nearly weeklong trial has delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled from their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still coming to grips with.

House prosecutors have argued that Trump’s rallying cry to go to the Capitol and ‘fight like hell’ for his presidency just as Congress was convening Jan.6 to Certify Joe Biden’s election victory was part of an orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims that unleashed officer.

Trump’s lawyers countered in a short three hours Friday that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment is nothing but a ‘witch hunt’ designed to prevent him from serving in office again.