Afp, Washington

The US Senate on Friday rebuffed Democratic calls for new witnesses at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal next week of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Following the 51-49 vote, the Senate scheduled four hours of closing arguments by Democratic prosecutors and White House defense lawyers on Monday and a vote for acquittal on Wednesday.

A Wednesday vote will mean the historic trial will not have concluded before Tuesday, when Trump is scheduled to give his nationally televised annual “State of the Union” speech to a joint session of Congress.

Trump is all-but-assured of being acquitted by the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats to 47 for the Democrats and a two-thirds majority -- or 67 senators -- is needed to remove a president from office.

Two Republican senators -- Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine -- joined 47 Democrats in voting to introduce further witnesses into the trial.

But Democrats failed to muster the four votes needed to allow testimony from Trump’s former national security advisor