The US Senate has voted against calling witnesses and collecting new evidence in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, clearing the way for his almost certain acquittal next week.
By a vote of 51-49, the Republican-controlled Senate stopped a Democrat drive to hear testimony from witnesses like former national security adviser John Bolton, who is thought to have first-hand knowledge of Mr Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.
Those actions prompted the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to formally charge President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December.
That made Mr Trump only the third president in US history to be impeached.
He denies wrongdoing and has accused Democrats of an "attempted coup."
The Senate approved a timeline for the rest of the trial on a party-line vote.
Closing arguments beginning on Monday will give the four Democratic senators who are running to be their party's presidential nominee time to get to Iowa for that night's first nominating contest.
The Senate will then hold a final vote on the impeachment charges on Wednesday.
The Senate is almost certain to acquit President Trump of the charges, as a two-thirds Senate majority is required to remove Mr Trump and none of the chamber's 53 Republicans have indicated they will vote to convict.
Mr Trump is seeking re-election in November.
Mr Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face him.
In yesterday's vote on witnesses, only two Republicans - Mitt Romney and Susan Collins - broke with their party and voted with Democrats.
"America will remember this day, unfortunately, where the Senate did not live up to its responsibilities, where the Senate turned away from truth and went along with a sham trial," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the trial should end as soon as possible.
"The cake is baked and we just need to move as soon as we can to get it behind us," he told reporters.
Yesterday's vote on witnesses came hours after the New York Times reported new details from an unpublished book manuscript written by Mr Bolton in which the former aide said Mr Trump directed him in May to help in a pressure campaign to get Ukraine to pursue investigations that would benefit the President politically.
Mr Bolton wrote that Mr Trump told him to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to ensure Mr Zelenskiy would meet with Mr Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a key player in the campaign, the Times reported.
Robert Costello, a lawyer for Mr Giuliani, called the Times report "categorically untrue."
Mr Bolton's lawyer and spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Democrats had said the news illustrated the need for the Senate to put Mr Bolton under oath.
But Republicans said they had heard enough.
Some said they did not think that Mr Trump did anything wrong, while Senators Lamar Alexander and Rob Portman said his actions were wrong but did not amount to impeachable conduct.
Senator Marco Rubio said impeachment would be too divisive for the country, even if a president engaged in clearly impeachable activity.
Lisa Murkowski, a Republican moderate who Democrats had hoped would vote with them to extend the trial, said the case against Mr Trump was rushed and flawed.
