Shafaq News/ President Donald Trump has been cleared in his impeachment trial, ending a congressional bid to oust him from office that bitterly divided the US.

The Senate, run by the president's fellow Republicans, voted to acquit him 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress.

Democrats charged Trump in December with pressuring Ukraine to smear a potential White House rival.

In November, Trump will be the first impeached president to go for election.

In its historic vote on Wednesday, the Senate decided not to remove America's 45th president from office on charges arising from his dealings with Ukraine.

If convicted on either charge, Trump would have had to turn over his office to Vice-President Mike Pence.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the articles of impeachment on 18 December.

Trump became the third president in the history of the United States against whom isolation measures in Congress were launched, after the two former presidents Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1998), were also acquitted by the Senate.

In 1973, the US House of Representatives tried to start accountability measures against President Richard Nixon, but he resigned.

In Trump's case, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives initiated the measures to isolate him on September 24, 2019 on the grounds of leaks stating that he pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelinsky, to announce the opening of an investigation against Hunter Biden, son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, who is one of Trump's strongest opponents in the upcoming presidential election.

Last January, the isolation file was referred to the Senate, and Trump's acquittal was almost certain in the Republican-dominated Council.