The historic impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plunged Republicans Sunday into a fight over whether to banish one of their own in America’s biggest red state after years of scandals and criminal indictments that will now be at the center of a trial in the state Senate. .

Paxton said he has “full confidence” as he awaits trial by the Senate, where his conservative allies include his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has not said whether she will recuse herself from proceedings to determine whether her husband will stay permanently. removed from office.

For now, Texas’ three-term attorney general is suspended immediately after the state House of Representatives indicted Paxton on Saturday on 20 counts that included bribery and breach of public trust.

The swing 121-23 vote amounted to a clear rebuke from the GOP-controlled chamber after nearly a decade of Republican lawmakers taking a largely muted stance on Paxton’s alleged misdeeds, which include felony fraud charges. of 2015 securities and an ongoing FBI investigation into allegations of corruption. .

He is only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to have been charged.

“No person should be above the law, at least not the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas,” said Republican state Rep. David Spiller, who was part of a House fact-finding committee that this week revealed that he had been discreetly investigating Paxton. for months.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has remained silent on Paxton all week, even after Saturday’s impeachment trial. Abbott, who was the state’s attorney general before Paxton took office in 2015, has the power to name a temporary replacement pending the outcome of the Senate trial.

It is unclear when the Senate trial will take place. Paxton’s eventual removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Republican members are generally aligned with the far right of the party. The Senate is led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who served as state chairman for former President Donald Trump’s campaigns in Texas.

Ahead of Saturday’s vote, Trump and US Senator Ted Cruz came to Paxton’s defense, with the senator calling the impeachment process “a travesty” and saying the attorney general’s legal problems should be left to the courts. .

“Free Ken Paxton,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform, warning that if House Republicans proceed with impeachment, “I will fight you.”

Paxton, 60, criticized the result in the House moments after dozens of his fellow party members voted in favor of impeachment. His office pointed to internal reports that found no wrongdoing.

“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House of Representatives today confirmed that the scandalous impeachment plot against me was never intended to be fair or equitable,” Paxton said. “It was a politically motivated farce from the beginning.”

Lawmakers allied with Paxton sought to discredit the investigation by pointing out that contract investigators, not panel members, interviewed witnesses. They also said that several of the investigators had voted in the Democratic primary, tainting the impeachment trial, and that Republican lawmakers had very little time to review the evidence.

“I sense that it could be a political weapon,” Rep. Tony Tinderholt, one of the most conservative members of the House, said before the vote. Republican Rep. John Smithee likened the proceedings to “a Saturday afternoon lynching mob.”

Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones said the swift impeachment movement prevented Paxton from gaining significant support and allowed quietly frustrated Republicans to rally.

“If you ask most Republicans in private, they feel that Paxton is an embarrassment. But most were too afraid of the base to oppose him,” Jones said. By voting as a big bloc, he added, lawmakers gained political coverage.

However, for Paxton’s longtime detractors, the rebuke was due years ago.

In 2014, he admitted to violating Texas securities law, and a year later he was indicted on securities fraud charges in his hometown near Dallas, accused of defrauding investors in a tech startup. He has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges that carry a potential sentence of five to 99 years.

He opened a legal defense fund and accepted $100,000 from an executive whose company was being investigated by Paxton’s office for Medicaid fraud. An additional $50,000 was donated by an Arizona retiree whose son Paxton was later hired for a high-ranking position, but was soon fired after showing child pornography at a meeting. In 2020, Paxton intervened in a Colorado mountain community where a Texas donor and college classmate was facing eviction from his lakeside home under coronavirus orders.

But what ultimately sparked the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.

In 2020, eight top advisers told the FBI that they were concerned that Paxton was misusing his office to help Paul with the developer’s unsubstantiated claims about an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million from his properties. The FBI searched Paul’s home in 2019, but he has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. Paxton also told staff members that he had an affair with a woman who was later found to be working for Paul.

The impeachment trial accuses Paxton of attempting to interfere in foreclosure lawsuits and issuing legal opinions to benefit Paul. The bribery charges included in the indictment allege that Paul employed the woman with whom Paxton had an affair in exchange for legal help and that he paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general’s home. A lead attorney for Paxton’s office, Chris Hilton, said Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.

Other charges, including lying to investigators, date back to Paxton’s still-pending securities fraud indictment.

Four aides who reported Paxton to the FBI later sued him under Texas whistleblower law, and in February he agreed to settle the case for $3.3 million. The House committee said the investigation was sparked by Paxton seeking legislative approval for the payment.

“Were it not for Paxton’s request for a taxpayer-funded settlement of his wrongful conduct, Paxton would not be facing impeachment,” the panel said.