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Republican-controlled Texas House impeaches Attorney General Ken Paxton, triggering suspension

House members line up to question Rep. Andrew Murr, R - Junction, Chair of the House General Investigating Committee, during the impeachment proceedings against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, Saturday, May 27, 2023. Texas lawmakers have issued 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, ranging from bribery to abuse of public trust as state Republicans surged toward a swift and sudden vote that could remove him from office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
House members line up to question Rep. Andrew Murr, R - Junction, Chair of the House General Investigating Committee, during the impeachment proceedings against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, Saturday, May 27, 2023. Texas lawmakers have issued 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, ranging from bribery to abuse of public trust as state Republicans surged toward a swift and sudden vote that could remove him from office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) House members line up to question Rep. Andrew Murr, R - Junction, Chair of the House General Investigating Committee, during the impeachment proceedings against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, Saturday, May 27, 2023. Texas lawmakers have issued 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, ranging from bribery to abuse of public trust as state Republicans surged toward a swift and sudden vote that could remove him from office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By ACACIA CORONADO, JIM VERTUNO and JAKE BLEIBERG / Associated Press 5 min read

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ Republican-led House of Representatives impeached state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a sudden, historic rebuke of a GOP official who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.

Impeachment triggers Paxton’s immediate suspension from office pending the outcome of a trial in the state Senate and empowers Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as Texas’ top lawyer in the interim.

The 121-23 vote constitutes an abrupt downfall for one of the GOP’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump. It makes Paxton only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.

Paxton, 60, decried the move moments after scores of his fellow partisans voted for impeachment, and his office pointed to internal reports that found no wrongdoing.

“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” Paxton said. “It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning.”