Senate Democrats voted unanimously to shut down the Senate trial of President Joe Biden’s impeached homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas.
The first vote of 51 Democrats to 48 Republicans, with one non-voting Republican senator, was reported at 3:18 p.m. on Wednesday.
The vote, initiated by Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declared that the first article of impeachment was “unconstitutional” because the charges against Mayorkas did not rise to the impeachable level of “high crimes.”
The House’s articles of impeachment charged Mayorkas with “the willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law,” including Congress’s law that asylum seekers be detained until their legal claims are completed.
The vote was delayed while Republican senators proposed motions to extend the trial period.
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