WASHINGTON — Former US President Donald Trump has been acquitted in the US Senate impeachment trial of inciting the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Senators voted that he was guilty by 57 in favor to 43 against, not enough to convict on the single charge of incitement to insurrection.

Although seven Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the Democrats, acquittal was always likely in the evenly divided Senate, as a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, was required to convict.

Trump has welcomed his second impeachment acquittal and says his movement "has only just begun."

He is the first president to be impeached twice, and he is also now twice acquitted as the majority of Republicans defended his actions.

That Trump would be found not guilty became even more probable after reports surfaced that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was going to acquit. However, he did so citing constitutional reasons. After the vote, the influential politician launched into a blistering attack on his former chief.

The vote was on whether the ex-president had incited the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, when his supporters overwhelmed police and stormed the Capitol in Washington.

Democrats argued that Trump caused the violent attack by repeating for months the false claims that the election was stolen from him. They said he then called on his supporters to “fight like hell” just before they laid siege to the Capitol, and claimed he refused to stop the violence.

In a lengthy statement, Donald Trump thanked his attorneys and his defenders in the House and Senate, who he said “stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

He slammed the trial as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country.” And he told his supporters that, “Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun” and that he will have more to share with them in the months ahead.

But the Senate’s top Democrat said the vote to acquit Donald Trump “will live as a vote of infamy in the history of the United States Senate.”

Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, applauded the seven Republicans who joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Trump.

He called the day of the riot the “final, terrible legacy” of Trump and said the stain of his actions will never be “washed away.” — Euronews