The businessman-turned-politician, 73, survived only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history – just like the two other impeached presidents – in his turbulent presidency’s darkest chapter. The Senate then voted 53-47 to acquit him of obstruction of Congress by blocking witnesses and documents sought by the House. Trump called the impeachment an attempted coup and a Democratic attempt to annul his 2016 election victory. Trump’s legal team offered a vision of nearly unlimited presidential powers, a view Democrats said placed any president above the law. In the previous presidential impeachment trials, Andrew Johnson was acquitted in 1868 in the aftermath of the American Civil War and Bill Clinton was acquitted in 1999 of charges stemming from a sex scandal.

Source: National Post February 05, 2020 19:20 UTC