Senate Acquits President

In two historic votes Friday, the Senate found President Clinton not guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

The Senate first voted 55-45 against convicting Mr. Clinton of perjury. Immediately following the perjury vote, senators voted 50-50 on the obstruction of justice charge.

"It is therefore ordered and adjudged that William Jefferson Clinton be and hereby is acquitted of the charges in the said articles," Chief Justice William Rehnquist declared as he brought the impeachment trial to its conclusion.

Hours after being acquitted, Mr. Clinton told the nation in a Rose Garden speech, "I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events."

"This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America," he added.

Ten Republicans--Chaffee, Collins, Jeffords, Snow, Spector, Gorton, Shelby Stevens, Thompson and Warner - joined all 45 Democrats in saying not guilty and the perjury charge was defeated 55 to 45.

Five of those Republicans also voted for acquittal on the second charge - obstruction of justice. That left the Senate split 50-50 - again far short of the 67 votes required to remove the President fro office.

So it was done. The Chief Justice made it official.

"Two-thirds of the senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein, it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said William Jefferson Clinton be and is hereby acquitted of the charges in said articles," Rehnquist said.

It was a bitter result for chief prosecutor Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who led the impeachment drive but he said he hopes independent counsel Ken Starr will drop the case now.

"I don't think indicting and criminally trying him after what we have all been through is going to be helpful to the country," Hyde said.

To senators on both sides, the system had worked.

"As the roll was called, as the decision was made, I thought to myself, 'the constitution lives,'" said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

A move by Democrats to censure Mr. Clinton was scuttled by Republican opposition. Twenty-seven Democrats and nine Republicans had signed a censure resolution condemning the president for "shameless, reckless and indefensible" behavior that "demeaned his office and brought shame and dishonor to himself."

But Republicans blocked it.

The problem with the censure resolution right now is that I think the Senate is tired. We've done what we were required to do in the Constitution. Censure is extra-constitutional; it's outside the Constitution," said Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

So, after a year of turmoil the trial ended without even a verbal reprimand from the Senate.

At the White House, the president didn't even watch the vote. His chief of staff called him with the results and an appraisal of who voted for and against, reports CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley.

The president was writing the remarks he delivered in the Rose Garden as the Senate was rendering its verdict. The hallways of the West Wing were deserted but you could hear the sound of "guilty" and "not guilty" from almost every office.

The staff seemed to watch without joy. There was no discernible celebration. On Friday night, the president sent his staff an e-mail apology: "I know my actions and the events they triggered have made your work even harder. For that I am profoundly sorry," he said.

The immediate future looks clear for Mr. Clinton. Lawyers who are familiar with the thinking in Ken Starr's office tell CBS News that it is extremely unlikely Starr will indict the president while Mr. Clinton remains in office.

Starr is said to be concerned about taking any further action that will interfere with the government's workings. Starr is also said to oppose seeking a sealed indictment against the president right away because he worries it would not remain secret until unsealed by the court at the end of Mr. Clinton's term. There could be an indictment in two years, but not likely before then.

In other developments, VicPresident Al Gore was on his way to an appearance in Albany, New York, at about the time the Senate was taking the impeachment vote.

If the Senate had convicted Mr. Clinton, Gore, under the 25th Amendment, would have become president automatically.

Hillary Clinton made no public appearances and had no public reaction to the impeachment vote, but her spokeswoman, Marsha Berry, did give the first lady's reaction to something else: The push by some influential Democrats for Mrs. Clinton to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York.

Said Berry: "I don't know that she's put a deadline on herself. I'm sure she will be giving thought to it."