Donald Trump hails 'full exoneration' after surviving historic impeachment trial in Senate

Donald Trump has claimed “full vindication and exoneration” after surviving his historic impeachment trial in the Senate.

The White House welcomed the decision to acquit the president, branding the proceedings a “witch hunt… based on a series of lies”.

But lashing out following the verdict on Wednesday night, Nancy Pelosi described the move as a “betrayal of the Constitution”.

The House speaker, who led the impeachment proceedings, added that Mr Trump remains an “ongoing” threat to democracy.

Donald Trump has described his acquittal as the 'country's victory on the impeachment hoax' 
Getty Images

Senators voted 52-48 in favour of clearing the US leader of abuse of power, and then 53-47 of obstruction of Congress’ investigation.

Despite surviving the trial, Ms Pelosi said, Mr Trump "has been impeached forever".

The outcome marked the end of only the third impeachment trial of a president in US history.

“The sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J Trump,” the White House said.

Mr Trump said he would make a public statement on the "country's victory on the impeachment hoax" on Thursday.

On the first article of impeachment, Mr Trump was charged with abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.

One Republican, Mitt Romney, joined the Democrats in voting for conviction. No Democrats voted for acquittal.

Mr Romney called Mr Trump's actions "perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of oath of office that I can imagine".

The outcome of the trial capped nearly five months of impeachment proceedings launched in Ms Pelosi's House of Representatives.

Mr Trump had eagerly predicted vindication, deploying the verdict as a political anthem in his re-election bid.

The president claimed he did nothing wrong, repeatedly branding the bid to remove him from office a "witch hunt" and "hoax".

Presiding officer Chief Justice of the US John Roberts reads the results of the vote on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power
AP

A whistleblower complaint of Mr Trump’s conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy set off alarms that led to the president’s impeachment.

The call had been placed the day after Mueller announced the findings of his Russia probe.

When Mr Trump told Mr Pelosi in September that the call was “perfect,” she was stunned.

"Perfectly wrong," she said. Days later, the speaker announced the formal impeachment inquiry.

The result in the House was the quickest, most partisan impeachment in US history, with no Republicans joining the House Democrats to vote for the charges

In her own statement following the non-guilty verdict, Ms Pelosi wrote: “Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the President remains an ongoing threat to American democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can corrupt the elections if he wants to.

She added: “Democrats will continue to defend our democracy For The People.”

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