AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas' GOP-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 fellow Republican who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal.

The vote 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 makes Paxton only the third sitting official in Texas' nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.

Moments after the vote, Paxton's office said the impeachment was "based on totally false claims" and pointed to internal reports that found no wrongdoing. House investigators said the attorney general's own probe into Paxton's actions includes false and disproven claims.

"No one person should be above the law, least not the top law enforcement officer of the state of Texas," Rep. David Spiller, a Republican member of the committee that investigated Paxton, said in opening statements.

Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democratic member, told lawmakers that Texas' "top cop is on the take."

Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican committee member, said without elaborating that Paxton had called lawmakers and threatened them with political "consequences." As the articles of impeachment were laid out, some of the lawmakers shook their heads.

Paxton has been under FBI...

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