Mitch McConnell plans to vote to acquit Trump in impeachment trial

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told fellow Republicans he plans to acquit former President Donald Trump of an impeachment charge for the second time, according to a Politico report.

McConnell’s comments, relayed to other members of the GOP conference in a letter, make his stance on impeachment clear: Minority leader cites issue of jurisdiction as a key reason for his acquittal and describes impeachment as a tool primarily used to dismiss a president. from the office. He writes that because Trump is no longer president, the Senate lacks jurisdiction.

Earlier, McConnell had reported that he was considering acquitting or convicting and was not lobbying members of his conference over the decision. In the end, McConnell appears to have concluded that the jurisdiction issue requires an acquittal vote.

“Today’s vote is a vote of conscience and I know we will all treat it as such,” McConnell wrote in the letter, first obtained by Burgess Everett of Politico. “Even though this is a close call, I believe that indictments are primarily a referral tool, so we lack competence.”

McConnell also argues that the conviction is not necessary because Trump could face consequences for his actions through criminal prosecution.

“The Constitution makes it clear that presidential criminal misconduct during his tenure can be prosecuted after the president’s departure, which in my opinion mitigates the otherwise troubling ‘January exception’ argument raised by the House,” he writes.

Regarding the question of the Senate’s jurisdiction, it should be noted that McConnell played a key role in setting the timing of the impeachment trial, and could have allowed it to begin before Trump already left the presidency. Democrats had wanted to hold the trial right after the House impeached Trump on Jan.13, but McConnell insisted on sticking to a previous timeline, which meant the Senate couldn’t resume the articles until Jan.19.

McConnell’s decision to acquit McConnell is significant given his position as leader of the Republicans in the Senate – and his influence over the conference. If he had voted to condemn, he could have opened the door for other GOP senators to do the same. Now, many Republicans are likely to do the same with the acquittal, a scenario that seems all the more likely as 44 GOP lawmakers voted to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this week.

The impeachment vote, ultimately, is unlikely to reach the threshold of 67 people needed to secure Trump’s conviction. Given McConnell’s stance – and the previous vote to end the trial itself – it looks like the Republican Party isn’t quite ready to distance itself from the former president.