AUSTIN, Texas -- The impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plunged Republicans on Sunday into a fight over whether to banish one of their own in America's biggest red state after years of criminal accusations.
Paxton said he has "full confidence" as he awaits a trial in the state Senate, where his conservative allies include his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has not said whether she will recuse herself from the proceedings to determine whether her husband will be permanently removed from office.
For now, Texas' three-term attorney general is immediately suspended after the state House of Representatives on Saturday impeached Paxton on 20 articles that included bribery and abuse of public trust.
The decisive 121-23 vote amounted to a clear rebuke from the GOP-controlled chamber after nearly a decade of Republican lawmakers taking a mostly muted stance on Paxton's alleged misdeeds, which include felony securities fraud charges from 2015 and an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption accusations.
He is just the third sitting official in Texas' nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.
"No one person should be above the law, least not the top law officer of the state of Texas," said Republican state Rep. David Spiller, who was part of a House investigative committee that last week revealed it had quietly been looking into Paxton for months.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott remained silent about Paxton all week, including after Saturday's impeachment. Abbott, who was the state's attorney general prior to Paxton's taking the job in 2015, has the power to appoint a temporary replacement pending the outcome in the Senate trial.
It is not yet clear when the Senate trial will take place. Final removal of Paxton would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Republican members are generally aligned with the party's hard right. The Senate is led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has served as state chairman for former President Donald Trump's campaigns in Texas.
The Senate was scheduled to meet Sunday ahead of today's final day of the legislative session, and Patrick has not signaled when the chamber will address the impeachment trial.
Even with the deadline today, state law allows the Senate to continue meeting on an impeachment matter, or set a later date to reconvene.
A group of Senate Republicans issued identical statements late Saturday saying they "welcome and encourage communication from our constituents." But members of the group also said they now consider themselves jurors and will not discuss the Paxton case.
Before the vote Saturday, Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz came to Paxton's defense, with the senator calling the impeachment process "a travesty" and saying the attorney general's legal troubles should be left to the courts.
"Free Ken Paxton," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, warning that if House Republicans proceeded with the impeachment, "I will fight you."
Paxton, 60, decried the outcome in the House moments after scores of his fellow partisans voted for impeachment. 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."
Lawmakers allied with Paxton tried to discredit the investigation by noting that hired investigators, not panel members, interviewed witnesses. They also said several of the investigators had voted in Democratic primaries, tainting the impeachment, and that Republican legislators had too little time to review evidence.
"I perceive it could be political weaponization," Rep. Tony Tinderholt, one of the House's most conservative members, said before the vote. Republican Rep. John Smithee compared the proceeding to "a Saturday mob out for an afternoon lynching."
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said the swift move to impeach kept Paxton from rallying significant support and allowed quietly frustrated Republicans to come together.
"If you ask most Republicans privately, they feel Paxton is an embarrassment. But most were too afraid of the base to oppose him," Jones said. By voting as a large bloc, he added, the lawmakers gained political cover.