Disgraced former US president Donald Trump has been acquitted at his impeachment trial of inciting last month’s riot at the Capitol.
By a vote of 57 to 43 on Saturday, the Senate voted to clear Trump on the charge, falling ten short of the 67 needed for conviction.
Seven Republicans broke party ranks to find Trump guilty.
The vote marked the second time in 12 months that Trump has survived an impeachment trial.
Democrats had wanted to bar him from holding public office again.
House prosecutors had argued that Trump’s rallying cry to his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” on January 6 led to the insurrection along with his lies about the presidential election being stolen from him.
Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.
Trump welcomed his acquittal, saying that his movement “has only just begun”.
During the impeachment trial, Trump’s lawyers countered that his words weren’t intended to incite the violence and that impeachment was a “witch hunt”.
The mob swarmed the Capitol building just as Congress was convening on January 6 to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
Earlier on Saturday, US House Democrats began wrapping up their impeachment case against Trump.
An unexpected vote in favour of hearing witnesses threw the trial into confusion just as it was on the verge of concluding.
Both sides ultimately reached a deal to instead enter into the record a statement from a Republican House legislator about a heated phone call between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on the day of the riot that Democrats say established the former president’s indifference to the violence.
Republicans were anxious to get the trial over with and put any discussion of Trump and the Capitol invasion behind them.
Democrats, too, had a motive to move on since the US senate cannot move ahead on President Biden’s agenda, including Covid-19 relief, while the impeachment trial is in session.
