(AFP)WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump drew on staunch Republican support to defeat the gravest threat yet to his three-year-old presidency on Wednesday, winning acquittal in the Senate on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Only the third US leader ever placed on trial, Trump readily defeated the Democratic-led effort to expel him from office for having illicitly sought help from Ukraine to bolster his 2020 re-election effort. The Democrats’ intense 78-day House investigation faced public doubts and high-pressure stonewalling from the White House. Protesters gather on Capitol Hill following the acquittal of US President Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial in Washington. In the trial, Trump’s defence was not seen as having undermined the facts compiled by Schiff’s probe, and several Republican senators acknowledged he did wrong.

Source: New Strait Times February 05, 2020 23:48 UTC