By Giuseppi LoPiccolo

On Feb. 5, the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump, clearing both impeachment charges against him and keeping him in office.

The number of votes needed for conviction fell far below the required 67-vote threshold. The first article, abuse of power, was rejected 48 to 52, and the second, obstruction of Congress, was defeated 47 to 53. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was the only member to break with his party, voting to remove President Trump from office.

Ahead of the vote and imminent acquittal, Romney stated he could not stand with his party over Trump's actions with Ukraine, calling them "grievously wrong."

"The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust," said Romney on the Senate floor. "What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine."

Romney was the only Republican to vote guilty, but he became the first senator to vote to remove a president of his own party from office.

At the center of the president’s impeachment trial was a July 25 phone call between himself and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Trump had seemingly pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, suspecting alleged corruption. Biden is one of Trump’s chief political rivals, and is a perceived threat in the upcoming election cycle.

The vote taken on Feb. 5 ended the third and most politically polarized presidential impeachment in history. The acquittal was a major victory for the president. At an early morning prayer breakfast, he held up newspapers that featured enormous "ACQUITTED!" headlines, and spoke against the process. Staging a rather long, rambling session at the White House prayer breakfast, the president denounced “evil” and “crooked” lawmakers and the “top scum” at the F.B.I. for trying to take him down.