U.S. President Donald Trump is on the verge of acquittal by the Senate, an end to only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history but coming at the start of a tumultuous campaign for the White House.
A majority of senators have now expressed unease with Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine that resulted in the two articles of impeachment. But there's nowhere near the two-thirds support necessary in Republican-held Senate for the Constitution's bar of high crimes and misdemeanours to convict and remove the president from office.
The Wednesday afternoon vote is expected to be swift. With Chief Justice John Roberts presiding, senators sworn to do "impartial justice" will stand at their desk for the roll call and state their votes -- "guilty" or "not guilty." "This decision is not about whether you like or dislike this president," began GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine centrist, announcing her resolve to acquit on both charges.
During the nearly three-week trial, House Democrats prosecuting the case argued that Trump abused power like no other president in history when he pressured Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. In closing arguments for the trial the lead prosecutor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., appealed to senators' sense of decency, that "right matters" and "truth matters"' and that Trump "is not who you are."
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