WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Donald J. Trump on both Articles of Impeachment. U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) issued the following statement upon the conclusion of the Senate’s trial:

“As a juror and former litigator, I strongly felt the need for a fair and objective Senate impeachment trial free from the deep politicization that characterized the House’s investigation of the President. Over the last two weeks, I have listened to hours of opening arguments and debate, and reviewed countless documents and witness testimony. House impeachment managers asserted that the House’s prepared case was ‘rock-solid.’ Having reviewed all the evidence as presented by the House managers and the President’s legal team, I do not share that assessment.

“This impeachment has epitomized exactly the sort of hyper-partisan exercise that our Founding Fathers warned against when they penned a Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict. Their debate indicated strongly they did not want impeachment to be used as a political bludgeon to simply remove a president with whom they disagree. That was attempted here. I therefore cast my vote to acquit the President and seek to return to the important work for Idahoans that they sent me to the Senate to accomplish.”

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