The US Senate voted against calling witnesses to testify in President Donald Trump's parliamentary trial, while Senate leader Republican Mitch McConnell said the president's trial would end within days.
The vote came by 51 to 49, as only two Republicans voted with the Democrats in favor of calling witnesses or documents in the trial, and a final vote was decided next Wednesday in which Trump is expected to be acquitted of the charges aimed at isolating him.
On January 22, the Majlis had voted to approve a number of rules relating to summoning witnesses and documents to be presented at the trial.
Since the trial began, Democrats have been trying to persuade at least four Republicans to support them in order to win a majority vote in favor of calling witnesses and court documents.
US Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Senate vote not to call witnesses or issue orders to produce documents in Trump's impeachment trial, and told reporters after the Senate vote: "There are no witnesses or documents in the impeachment trial, this is treachery, it's a great tragedy."
Meanwhile, Republicans said the trial to isolate Trump in the Senate would end "in the coming days," and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that no witnesses or documents were needed in the trial, insisting that investigations that Conducted in the House of Representatives was sufficient.
Closing arguments
Subsequently, several American media outlets, quoting parliamentary sources, said that the trial will resume again tomorrow, Monday, to hear over two days the closing arguments and deliberation of the ruling.
She added that the vote on the two charges against Trump - exploiting his authority and obstructing the work of Congress - will take place on Wednesday, and will result in the president being acquitted of them, given that his conviction needs a two-thirds majority, while Republicans Trump's allies in the Council enjoy the majority in the Council.
In doing so, Trump will become the third president in the history of the United States to be referred to trial before the Senate with the intent to remove him from office and be acquitted of the charges against him.
The US constitution states that two-thirds of the Senate - 67 of a hundred - must endorse the removal of the president, a ceiling that the Democratic camp cannot reach because it has only 47 votes in the House.
Trump, who is campaigning for his re-election campaign, is in a hurry to turn this file around, and relatives of him have said that he hopes to clear him before delivering his traditional State of the Union speech next Tuesday in front of Congress.
The House of Representatives voted last December in favor of activating Trump's accountability in order to isolate him, after two charges were brought against him, namely abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.