WASHINGTON _ The Senate is poised to acquit President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress' investigation into his conduct, ending the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
The vote will be sharply divided along party lines with only a handful of lawmakers still undeclared as of Wednesday morning, including Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who bucked his party to join an unsuccessful Democratic effort to call witnesses, as well as Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who might vote to acquit. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., another thought to be struggling with his vote, said Wednesday he will vote to convict.
The 12-day trial is the shortest in presidential impeachment history, and the only one that did not include subpoenas for witnesses or documents. Democrats say that exclusion delegitimized the process.
"If the president is acquitted with no witnesses, no documents, any acquittal will have no value because Americans will know that this trial was not a real trial," said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. "It's a tragedy on a very large scale."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was able to keep enough of his Republicans together to oppose witnesses.
The House impeached Trump in December for withholding nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine while pressing the country's leaders to announce investigations into his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sixty-seven votes are required in the Senate to remove an impeached president from office _ a bar that Democrats knew they were unlikely to even brush up against.
Trump made no mention of the impeachment during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, adhering to a request made by Senate Republicans to focus instead on a new agenda in an election year.
Still, the acquittal vote is not a clean win for the president. Unlike in the House, where many Republicans echoed Trump's line that his actions with Ukraine were proper or "perfect," several Senate Republicans made clear that they found Trump's actions wrong, even if not impeachable or warranting removal.
"It is clear from the July 25, 2019, phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy that the investigation into the Bidens' activities requested by President Trump was improper and demonstrated very poor judgment," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Senators on both sides of the aisle complained this week that they were being asked to make a decision based on an incomplete record. Republicans blamed the House for not fighting for the testimony and documents in court.
"Instead of using tools available to compel the administration to compel documents and witnesses, the House followed a self-imposed and entirely political deadline for voting on the articles of impeachment before Christmas," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Democrats blamed the White House for refusing to comply with congressional attempts to subpoena administration officials and documents, and the Senate for not calling witnesses.
"We robbed ourselves and the American people of a full record," said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats.
