<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Texas' Republican-run House of Representatives has voted to impeach state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, who is accused of bribery and abuse of public trust.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Paxton, an ally of former President Donald Trump, is now suspended from office pending a trial in the Senate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A two-thirds vote in the upper chamber - where Republicans also dominate - is required to permanently expel him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Paxton, aged 60, denies all the accusations against him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Responding to a 121-23 vote in the House on Saturday, Mr Paxton said in a statement: "The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The impeachment vote was on 20 articles, which also include accusations of improperly aiding a wealthy political donor and conducting a sham investigations against whistleblowers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The result demonstrates a very public split between Texas Republicans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Attorney General Paxton continuously and blatantly violated laws, rules, policies and procedures," House Republican David Spiller said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today is a very grim and difficult day for this House and for the state of Texas," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But John Smithee, another Texas House Republican, opposed the impeachment, arguing that the attorney general had not been given the chance to properly respond to the allegations against him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's what I call the hang him now and judge him later policy," Mr Smithee said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Mr Trump - who hopes to win a Republican nomination for the 2024 election - backed Mr Paxton.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shortly before the vote, he wrote "free Ken Paxton" in a post on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The House vote makes Mr Paxton the first state official in Texas to be impeached in almost 50 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott has the powers to appoint an interim state attorney general even before the Senate trial is concluded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Paxton is well-known in America for his high-profile litigation campaigns.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, he unsuccessfully pressed the US Supreme Court to overturn Mr Trump's defeat to Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the presidential election.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five years earlier, Mr Paxton called the Supreme Court's decision legalising gay marriage in all 50 states a "lawless ruling", vowing to support state workers who refuse to marry couples on religious grounds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he is perhaps best known for spearheading the ongoing fight in the courts to challenge the Biden administration's changes to the immigration system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Paxton has said the measures he is fighting would encourage illegal crossings and burden Texas and other states with additional expenses for law enforcement, health care and education, the New York Times reports. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>