The Senate on Wednesday voted to acquit President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his dealings with Ukraine, marking the end of the months-long saga that has dominated Washington.

Senators voted 48-52 on abuse of power and 47-53 on obstruction, falling well short of the two-thirds requirement for convicting Trump and removing him office.

But, in a blow to Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE's (R-Ky.) efforts to keep Republicans unified, Sen. Mitt Romney Willard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates GOP votes to authorize subpoenas, depositions in Obama-era probe Overnight Defense: Trump hosts Israel, UAE, Bahrain for historic signing l Air Force reveals it secretly built and flew new fighter jet l Coronavirus creates delay in Pentagon research for alternative to 'forever chemicals' MORE (Utah), the party's 2012 presidential nominee, announced less than two hours before the vote that he would vote to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge, while acquitting him on the second article.

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“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did. ... The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” Romney said during a Senate floor speech.

Refuting months of GOP predictions, no Democratic senators voted to acquit Trump. Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Joe Manchin Joseph (Joe) ManchinSenate leaders quash talk of rank-and-file COVID-19 deal OVERNIGHT ENERGY: House Democrats tee up vote on climate-focused energy bill next week | EPA reappoints controversial leader to air quality advisory committee | Coronavirus creates delay in Pentagon research for alternative to 'forever chemicals' Senate Democrats demand White House fire controversial head of public lands agency MORE (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — all seen as potential swing votes — announced earlier Wednesday that they would vote to convict.

Trump is the third president to be impeached in the country’s history, and the first to run for reelection afterward. The battle also marked the first that occurred while the chambers of Congress weren’t controlled by the same party, setting up the most sectarian and acrimonious of the three presidential impeachments.

When the articles passed in the House in December, two Democrats — Reps. Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.) — voted against them, while Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), a White House hopeful, voted "present." No House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, and Van Drew announced he was joining the GOP.

Wednesday's votes cap off a weeks-long impeachment trial in which Trump’s legal team and House managers spent hours making their case to the senators, but also to the American public.

With the outcome of the trial pre-baked — Republicans have a 53-seat majority, and Democrats needed 67 votes to convict — the arguments were really meant to sway a handful of undecided senators in both parties and for the benefit of voters ahead of November's elections.

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McConnell immediately declared victory after the votes closed, calling impeachment a "colossal political mistake" for Democrats.

"The president has his highest approval rating since he's been in office. ... Every one of our people in tough races is in better shape today than they were before the impeachment trial started," McConnell told reporters during a press conference.

Asked about Romney's vote, the GOP leader conceded that he was "surprised and disappointed," but noted Romney had supported most of the party's agenda.

The trial wasn’t without its drama: Debate raged around the Capitol until late last week about whether or not there would be a tie on a crucial vote on witnesses.

Republicans had faced days of intense scrutiny to call former national security adviser John Bolton John BoltonThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Pence lauds Harris as 'experienced debater'; Trump, Biden diverge over debate prep DOJ launches probe into Bolton book for possible classified information disclosures Gary Cohn: 'I haven't made up my mind' on vote for president in November MORE after The New York Times reported that he will claim in his forthcoming memoir — entitled “The Room Where It Happened”— that Trump tied Ukraine aid to the country helping with investigations into Democrats including former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden National postal mail handlers union endorses Biden MORE, a 2020 presidential candidate, and his son Hunter Biden.

Romney noted ahead of the vote that he had hoped to hear from Bolton "because I believed he could add context to the charges but also because I hoped that what he might say could raise reasonable doubt and thus remove from me the awful obligation to vote for impeachment."

Despite the jostling, the facts underlying Trump’s impeachment are not seriously contested: Trump and his allies pressed Ukrainian leaders to open investigations — the first into Hunter Biden and the second on debunked theories that Kyiv, not Moscow, meddled in the 2016 election.

At the same time, the administration temporarily delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, which is fighting Russian aggression in eastern parts of the country.

But the pieces for Trump’s quick acquittal began to fall into place on Thursday night when Sen. Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderTrump health officials grilled over reports of politics in COVID-19 response Now is the time to renew our focus on students and their futures CDC says asymptomatic people don't need testing, draws criticism from experts MORE (R-Tenn.) said he would not vote to hear new witnesses, a blow to the Democratic effort to get four GOP senators to side with them to compel new testimony.

Alexander, contradicting the Republican talking points, said that Trump engaged in “inappropriate” but not impeachable behavior. Sen. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiGOP ramps up attacks on Democrats over talk of nixing filibuster OVERNIGHT ENERGY: House Democrats tee up vote on climate-focused energy bill next week | EPA reappoints controversial leader to air quality advisory committee | Coronavirus creates delay in Pentagon research for alternative to 'forever chemicals' House Democrats tee up vote on climate-focused energy bill next week MORE (R-Alaska) called Trump’s behavior “shameful and wrong,” while Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsThe Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally Gideon leads Collins by 12 points in Maine Senate race: poll Senate leaders quash talk of rank-and-file COVID-19 deal MORE (R-Maine) said Trump showed “poor judgement.”

“We expect a bipartisan vote in the United States Senate," Vice President Pence had said earlier on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News. "The only bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives was against the articles of impeachment. And we expect a bipartisan vote in the United States Senate today.”

Trump is expected to address the votes in the Senate later on Wednesday after ignoring impeachment in his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress last night.

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The first article of impeachment accused Trump of “using the powers of his high office” to solicit “the interference of a foreign government … in the 2020 United States Presidential election.”

“He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent” and influence the election, the article states.

White House lawyers repeatedly countered during the trial that Trump delayed the Ukraine aid over concerns about corruption and burden sharing with other countries.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow Jay Alan SekulowNow, we need the election monitors Judge denies Trump's request for a stay on subpoena for tax records Judge throws out Trump effort to block subpoena for tax returns MORE quickly declared victory on Wednesday and brushed off questions about Romney.



"We're very pleased with the result. I'm glad this is behind us. I'm glad this is behind the country," Sekulow said.

Pressed on Romney, he added: "The president has been acquitted of all charges. We're not concerned about anything. I have no reaction to it. My reaction is the president won."

— Updated at 5:12 p.m.