The Senate Votes Against Witnesses In Trump’s Impeachment Trial

The U.S. Senate on Friday evening voted down consideration of additional witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial. The chamber is now very likely to vote to acquit Trump, although it’s not clear if that vote will happen in the next 24-48 hours or sometime next week.

The vote, 51-49 against witnesses, was mostly along party lines. Just two Republican senators, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined the 47 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in favor of hearing from witnesses. The other 51 Republicans opposed the motion.

It’s long been assumed that the Senate will vote to acquit Trump. But it wasn’t clear whether Republicans could hold an impeachment trial that both ended relatively quickly and didn’t do much damage to Trump electorally. Witnesses would both lengthen the trial and increase the possibility of compelling details being unearthed that might make the president and his aides look bad.