For Trump, an Escape, Not an Exoneration

Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and the lead House impeachment manager, pointed out that the 57 to 43 vote was the highest total for conviction of a president since Andrew Johnson was acquitted by a single vote in 1868 even if it did not reach the two-thirds required for conviction.

And Mr. Raskin argued that if only 10 of the Republican senators who voted for acquittal justified their decisions strictly on the same constitutional grounds that Mr. McConnell did, that would mean functionally two-thirds of the Senate concluded that Mr. Trump was guilty on the facts.

“The defendant, Donald John Trump, was let off on a technicality,” declared Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas and another manager.

But Democrats were not entirely sure whether to emphasize the result as a moral victory or condemn it as a shameful betrayal by Republicans.

Even as Mr. Raskin was citing Mr. McConnell’s comments as vindication of the managers’ case, Speaker Nancy Pelosi unexpectedly showed up at the managers’ post-trial news conference to upbraid Mr. McConnell for “a very disingenuous speech” in which he tried “to have it every which way,” presumably to assuage Republican donors.

Wary of losing Mr. McConnell, who almost certainly could have brought several votes with him and perhaps even enough to secure conviction, Mr. Trump uncharacteristically avoided antagonizing Republican senators during the trial. While he was forced to scramble to find lawyers willing to defend him and ended up putting his case in the hands of a personal injury lawyer from Philadelphia, Mr. Trump knew going in that he most likely had the votes for acquittal as long as he kept quiet.

His lawyers misstated facts and at times aggravated Republicans and Mr. Trump himself with their presentations, but they focused on rallying the party’s senators to stick with him by characterizing the trial as a hypocritical scam by Democrats out to get a political opponent — an argument that some Republicans were willing to embrace even if they did not want to defend Mr. Trump’s specific actions.

“The Democrats’ vindictive and divisive political impeachment is over,” Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, wrote on Twitter afterward. “While there are still many questions that remain unanswered, I do know neither the Capitol breach nor this trial should have ever occurred. Hopefully, true healing can now begin.”

Mr. Trump, of course, has rarely if ever been in the healing business. Now that he is off the hook in the Senate, he presumably will shed his reticence to speak out. His statement on Saturday was another hint about a return to public life. “We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant and limitless American future,” he wrote.

Having failed to convict, Democrats hope that the trial nonetheless made it implausible if not impossible for Mr. Trump to ever run for president again as he has hinted he might do and that the images of the riot he encouraged will be seared into the pages of posterity. “He deserves to be permanently discredited — and I believe he has been discredited — in the eyes of the American people and in the judgment of history,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader.

But the final judgments on the events of Jan. 6 and his presidency have yet to be issued. Mr. Trump retains powerful support among the Republican base, as demonstrated when state party organs condemned and even censured their own representatives and senators who have broken with him since Jan. 6. For many in the core Republican constituency, personal loyalty to Mr. Trump clearly matters more than party loyalty.

On the other hand, while he is free of the impeachment threat, Mr. Trump still faces possible legal jeopardy stemming from his efforts to subvert the election through false claims of fraud. Among other things, there are criminal investigations in Washington about the riot and in Georgia about Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure state election officials to overturn the results of the state’s vote. Legal experts said the former president could likewise be exposed to civil litigation from victims of the Capitol rampage. And there are continuing investigations of his finances in New York.

Mr. McConnell seemed to encourage the authorities to pursue Mr. Trump with criminal prosecution, which he said was the constitutionally appropriate means for holding a former president responsible for his actions. Accountability, he said, was still possible.

“He didn’t get away with anything — yet,” Mr. McConnell said. “Yet.”