Trump guilty on both impeachment counts, Sen. Brian Schatz declares on Senate floor

Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz declared President Donald Trump to be “guilty on both counts” in the impeachment trial, and Schatz announced on the U.S. Senate floor today that he will vote to convict the president.

“The president is not above the law, no one is above the law,” said Schatz, a Democrat, in remarks shortly after noon Hawaii time.

Schatz said the “American experiment” envisioned equal justice and equal protection under the law, and “so it is with unending regret that I see what is happening.”

“I grieve for the Senate, an institution both hallowed and flawed, an elite place in the worst sense of the word, and yet still the main place where Americans problems are to be solved,” Schatz said.

“There are millions of Americans that have formed a basic expectation about how a trial is to function based on hundreds of years of law, and based on their common sense, and so make no mistake — what the Senate did was a basic affront to the basic idea of a trial,” Schatz said.

“And for all of of the crocodile tears of my colleagues, all of the fake outrage at the accusation, we must call this what it was: It’s a cover up.”

Senate Republicans refused to allow witnesses to be called in Trump’s trial in the Senate.

Trump has been impeached by the Democrat-run U.S. House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but is almost certain to be acquitted later this week in the Republican-run Senate.