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Republican Senator Mitt Romney announced earlier in the day that he would vote to remove Trump,citing his deep religious faith as a key factor in his dramatic decision.

"Corrupting an election process in a democratic republic is about as abusive and egregious an act against the Constitution - and one's oath - that I can imagine,"Romney said on the Senate floor.

"It's what autocrats do."

In this image from video,the vote total,52-48 for not guilty,on the first article of impeachment,abuse of power,is displayed on screen during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate.Credit:AP

The 2012 presidential nominee's decision denied Trump the unified Republican support many had expected.

Speaking just before the vote,Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said:"We will reject this incoherent case that comes nowhere near - nowhere near - justifying the first presidential removal in history.

"We should all agree this is precisely the kind of recklessness the Senate was designed to stop. The response to losing one election can not be to threaten the president.

"We simply cannot let factional fever break our institutions.”

Trump became just the third president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives when a majority of members charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December.

Romney said Trump committed an"appalling abuse of public trust"in pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.

"What the president did was wrong,grievously wrong,"he said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that were their names not Biden,the President would never have done what he did ... It was a flagrant assault of our electoral rights,our national security and our fundamental values."

He said voting to remove a Republican president from office was the most difficult decision he had ever faced.

Explaining his decision to break with the leader of his own party Romney,who is Mormon,said:"As a senator juror,I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice.

Senator Mitt Romney reveals he will vote to convict US President Donald Trump to remove him from office. .Credit:AP

"I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am."

He will become the first senator in US history to vote to remove from office a president from his own party.

Romney voted to acquit Trump on the second article of impeachment,obstruction of Congress.

Trump's campaign chief Brad Parscale said on Twitter:"Mitt Romney is an irrelevant relic ... Let’s call it what it is. You’re sour about Trump’s success and you want to keep your elitist dinner invites."

Earlier in the day Alabama Senator Doug Jones - who faces a tough re-election fight this year as a Democrat in a pro-Trump state - announced he would vote to convict Trump on both articles of impeachment.

Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin - two other Democratic senators from conservative states - also voted to remove Trump from office.

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