WASHINGTON: The U.S. Senate on Saturday acquitted former President Donald Trump of inciting insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month after he urged hundreds of his supporters to confront lawmakers as they were certifying that he had lost last November’s election to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Senate voted 57-43 to convict the former U.S. leader on a single impeachment count – incitement of insurrection, VOA reported.

But that majority of all 50 Democrats in the chamber, joined by seven Republicans, fell 10 votes short of the 67 needed for a conviction, two-thirds of the 100-member Senate.

It was the second time that Trump, the only president in two-plus centuries of U.S. history to be twice impeached, had been acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial.

He was acquitted a year ago on charges that he had enlisted the Ukrainian president to try to dig up dirt on Biden ahead of the election.