Donald Trump towards acquittal also in the second impeachment trial, the only president to have been indicted twice and the first to face the proceedings after leaving the White House.
A ruling announced after powerful Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell leaked an email to party colleagues announcing his intention to vote for the former president's acquittal.
Thus burying any remaining hope of a conviction that required the support of at least 17 Grand Old Party senators to reach a two-thirds quorum.
McConnell, who had publicly condemned Trump for instigating the assault on Congress, espoused the defensive thesis of the unconstitutionality of impeachment against an already fallen president, believing that it is "primarily a tool for his removal" and that the The Senate therefore has no jurisdiction.
The fifth and final hearing had opened with a surprise move by the prosecution, which had requested and obtained the possibility of calling witnesses, with the support of five Republican senators.
The first was to be Jaime Herrera Beutler - one of ten Republican lawmakers who voted for Trump's impeachment - after his embarrassing revelations on Friday.
The lawmaker confirmed in a statement that her party leader in the House Kevin McCarthy told her that in a phone call during the assault on Congress the former president was on the side of the rioters and refused to stop them.
"Kevin, I think those people are angrier than you about the election," Trump would have said, showing indifference to the violence.
The possible citation of texts, however, sowed chaos in the courtroom and evoked the scenario of a postponement of even days in the trial, with the risk of obscuring Joe Biden's agenda.
The defense had threatened to call at least 100 witnesses, from the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to the dem mayor of the capital Muriel Bowser, opening a real Pandora's box.
After an hour and a half hiatus that kept everyone in suspense, the parties agreed to replace the deposition of the GOP deputy with the acquisition of her statements and to renounce other testimonies.
Then the prosecution and defense moved on to the closing speeches, before the explanations of vote.
"Today's vote is almost certainly as you will be remembered by history": this is how the chief prosecutor Jamie Raskin concluded his harangue in the impeachment trial against Donald Trump after two hours, asking to condemn him.
Absolution, he warned, will put the country on a dangerous path: "Is this America? What America will it be? This is now literally in your hands", he added.