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“There’s no question” that Trump “is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said just after the Senate acquitted Trump of inciting the attack. “No question about it.”

But “the question is moot,” McConnell said, because as a former president, “Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction.”

“After intense reflection, I believe the best constitutional reading shows that Article 2 Section 4 exhausts the set of persons who can legitimately be impeached, tried or convicted,” McConnell said.

“It’s the president, it’s the vice president, and civil officers. We have no power to convict a former office holder who is now a private citizen,” he said.

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But in his floor speech after the vote, McConnell endorsed the view that “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office.”

“He didn’t get away with anything, yet,” McConnell said, noting that “we have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being [held] accountable by either one.”

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“Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction.”

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Of the 57 “guilty” votes that rang out on the Senate floor Saturday, only one — uttered by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) — elicited gasps from around the chamber.

The North Carolina Republican had given no previous indication he was leaning toward voting to convict former president Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection, after a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead.

But the days-long trial had convinced Burr of Trump’s culpability, he said in a statement afterward.

“The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Therefore, I have voted to convict,” Burr said. “I do not make this decision lightly, but I believe it is necessary. By what he did and by what he did not do, President Trump violated his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Ultimately Burr was joined by six of his GOP colleagues, who voted alongside all 50 Democrats to convict Trump. However, it fell short of the number of votes needed — two-thirds of the senators present — for Trump to be convicted. In a 57 to 43 vote, the Senate acquitted Trump of the charge of inciting an insurrection, concluding the former president’s second impeachment trial.

Burr, along with Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) were the Republicans who voted with Democrats to convict Trump.

Burr acknowledged that he had believed the trial to be unconstitutional when he started. However, Burr said he had made his decision as an impartial juror, believing the question of constitutionality to be established precedent after the Senate voted to proceed with the trial.