170+ constitutional scholars from across the ideological spectrum said that impeaching and trying a former president was constitutional.
The Senate voted to proceed with an impeachment trial as constitutional.
Solid evidence was presented at trial by the House managers showing the guilt of Donald Trump.
43 Republican Senators chose to ignore a scholarly opinion, a vote by their own House of Congress, AND all the evidence presented at the trial and voted to acquit Trump.
For the first time in our history, an American President incited an attack on the Congress of the United States. He encouraged the gathering for more than 2 months. He "rallied" his supporters with lies and conspiracy theories about election fraud in which 61 courts, including the Supreme Court, ruled there was no merit or standing. Through a combination of personal appearances, videos and social media posts, he inundated the public with these lies and theories on a daily basis. On January 6, 2021, he delivered a speech to more than a thousand supporters gathered in front of the White House. He ended the speech by directing the crowd to march on the Capitol and "Stop the Steal". We all know what happened next.
There is a legal principle known as "Proximate Cause" which holds that an action that produced foreseeable consequences without intervention from anyone else is the proximate, or legal, cause of any injury or damage. It may not be the first event that set in motion a sequence of events that led to an injury, and it may not be the very last event before the injury occurs. It simply needs to lead to the injury. Donald Trump's actions leading up to, and on, January 6, 2021 was a proximate cause of the Capitol riot. A Capitol Police officer was killed, and two others died later, as a result of the riot.
Saturday, 43 Republican Senators ignored all of this evidence, and more, in choosing to acquit the former president of the charges set forth in the Article of Impeachment presented by the House of Representatives.
The House impeached Trump while he was still the sitting President of the United States. The House was then prohibited from presenting the Article to the Senate for trial. Once presented, Senate rules state that all business of the Senate must suspend and they must proceed immediately to trial. At the time of passage of the Article of Impeachment, Mitch McConnell was the Majority Leader of the Senate. He would not permit presentation of the Article until after the inauguration of Joe Biden. The Article was presented formally on January 25, 2021. The Democrats gained a nominal majority in the Senate on January 5, 2021 after the runoff election in Georgia.
Fast forward to February 13, 2021. Both the House managers and counsel for the former president have completed presenting their cases and a vote was held. A 2/3 majority is required for conviction and removal from office. While a majority of Senators voted for conviction, the required majority was not attained. In accordance with Article I, Section 3 of the US Constitution, Donald Trump was acquitted.
Following the vote Mitch McConnell, now the Minority Leader, gave a speech in the Senate where he effectively agreed that Trump was guilty of the charges in the Article of Impeachment. And yet, just minutes earlier, McConnell had voted "Not Guilty". His reason? Trump had already left office! McConnell was the one who prevented any possibility of a trial while Trump was still IN office! This was also the reason given by many others who voted for acquittal. The fix was in from the beginning.
Refusal to vote based solely on the evidence has stripped 43 Senate Republicans of any and all credibility. Their four year record of subservience to Donald Trump had done most of the damage, but they had the chance to regain some of it. They opted for failure. At every level, constitutionally, a Senate vote affirming the legality of the trial, and being presented with a preponderance of evidence showing guilt, these Republicans abdicated their oaths and their duties. They can never be trusted again. Cowardice and hypocrisy have taken the day.