Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, informed colleagues Saturday morning that it was a “close call,” but he would vote to acquit former President Donald J. Trump on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to three people familiar with the matter.
His decision, revealed in an email to colleagues hours before a vote on the verdict, put to rest weeks of uncertainty and public silence about how Mr. McConnell would judge the former president, and confirmed that it was all but certain that the Senate would acquit Mr. Trump. Mr. McConnell said the Senate had no power under the Constitution to remove an ex-president, a position that many constitutional scholars have rejected, according to the people, who shared the contents of Mr. McConnell’s message on condition of anonymity to disclose a private communication.
“While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” the leader wrote. “The Constitution makes perfectly clear that presidential criminal misconduct while in office can be prosecuted after the president has left office, which in my view alleviates the otherwise troubling ‘January exception’ argument raised by the House.”
The leader had let it be known that he believed Mr. Trump committed impeachable offenses and told advisers and colleagues he was open to conviction as the best way of purging Mr. Trump from the Republican Party. He even said publicly that Mr. Trump had “provoked the attack.”
But on Saturday, he cited the same constitutional concerns about trying a former president that other Republicans have to justify their votes. His decision could help tamp down possible defections by others in the party contemplating a “guilty” vote.
Seventeen Republican senators would need to join the Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict Mr. Trump of the single charge he faces. If they did, they could then vote to disqualify him from holding office in the future.
Many Republicans were already on record supporting the view that the impeachment trial was unconstitutional. Before the Senate voted Saturday morning on a last-minute call for witnesses, the Senate had been on track to conclude the fastest presidential impeachment trial ever.
