The Texas Senate voted on Saturday to acquit the state’s legal professional basic, Ken Paxton, after a nine-day impeachment trial that targeted on allegations of corruption and divided the Republican Party.

Mr. Paxton, a three-term incumbent who had been suspended from the publish since his impeachment in May, was instantly reinstated.

The impeachment case has deepened the rift within the Republican Party in Texas, with those that lined up behind Mr. Paxton attacking Republicans within the Texas House who backed impeachment by a large margin.

The course of was overseen by Republicans, with Republicans in each the protection and within the prosecution, however in the end, most Republicans within the Senate supported Mr. Paxton. Only two Republican senators voted in favor of conviction on any article. With a two-thirds vote required for conviction, no article acquired even a majority vote.

Mr. Paxton, an ally of former President Donald J. Trump who appeared on the trial solely twice and was not current for the vote, responded afterward to what he known as a “sham impeachment” that he mentioned had been coordinated partly by a “kangaroo court” within the Texas House.

“The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt,” he mentioned in a press release.

He added a warning to the Biden administration, which he has focused as legal professional basic with a collection of authorized challenges targeted on immigration, abortion and transgender points. “Buckle up, because your lawless policies will not go unchallenged,” he mentioned.

His spouse, Senator Angela Paxton, who was not allowed to vote on the case, stood up after the vote and hugged or shook arms with the attorneys who represented her husband, together with Tony Buzbee, a Houston trial lawyer who was one of many many high-powered attorneys concerned within the case on either side.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who had not beforehand commented on the impeachment trial, mentioned afterward that “the jury has spoken.” He mentioned Mr. Paxton had acquired a good trial and, as legal professional basic, “has done an outstanding job representing Texas, especially pushing back against the Biden administration.”

After the vote on Saturday, the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who had been serving as decide through the trial and maintained a studious impartiality, gave a speech excoriating his fellow Republicans within the House for even sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.

He accused the management within the House of getting rushed via the case with out giving members sufficient time to think about the proof. The House authorized 20 articles of impeachment in May on a vote of 121 to 23, together with a majority of Republicans.

“Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on this impeachment,” Mr. Patrick mentioned. He mentioned the Senate had held a radical trial, which included a whole lot of subpoenas for info and testimony. As he spoke, one Democratic senator walked out of the Senate chamber.

There had been substantial political stress from the Republican Party’s conservative wing to assist Mr. Paxton, together with threats to run main challenges towards lawmakers who supported impeachment.

Mr. Trump, in a publish on the Truth Social platform, described the case towards Mr. Paxton as “political persecution” and applauded the acquittal. “We should choose our elected officials by VOTING, not by weaponizing government,” he wrote.

Before the trial started, Mr. Patrick acquired a $1 million contribution and a $2 million mortgage to his marketing campaign from Defend Texas Liberty, a bunch strongly backing Mr. Paxton, whose chief after the acquittal promised “to lead the charge to fire” these Republicans who had supported the impeachment.

Mr. Patrick mentioned he would name for an official audit of the spending by the Texas House on its investigation and impeachment.

But his criticisms prompted quick pushback from the Republican speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan. “I find it deeply concerning that after weeks of claiming he would preside over this trial in an impartial and honest manner, Lt. Gov. Patrick would conclude by confessing his bias and placing his contempt for the people’s House on full display,” Mr. Phelan mentioned in a press release.

Some of the senators, who had been prevented from talking through the trial by a gag order imposed by Mr. Patrick, emerged from the vote keen to debate the case.

“There was no evidence,” mentioned Senator Bob Hall, a conservative Republican who had voted to dismiss all of the articles at first of the trial.

Senator Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, disagreed. “He abused his powers, not in a subtle way,” he mentioned of Mr. Paxton, including that the case had been confirmed by the proof. He mentioned he appeared outdoors through the vote, “and I saw the United States flag and the Texas flag blowing strong in the wind and the rain, and I felt sick, because what are we doing to what those flags represent inside this building?”

The two Republicans voting in favor of conviction have been Kelly Hancock, who represents an city and suburban district that features components of Fort Worth, and Robert Nichols, an occasional iconoclast whose East Texas district contains town of Beaumont.

The 12 Democratic senators voted to convict on virtually each one of many 16 articles thought of through the trial.

Despite his success avoiding conviction, Mr. Paxton nonetheless has authorized troubles forward. He faces an 8-year-old prison indictment on expenses of securities fraud a case that has begun transferring ahead once more in a state court docket in Houston.

And a federal investigation into Mr. Paxton — prompted by most of the similar expenses explored through the impeachment — continues to be persevering with.

The impeachment trial targeted on accusations, leveled primarily by former high deputies who grew to become whistle-blowers, that Mr. Paxton had abused his workplace to assist an Austin actual property investor, Nate Paul, who had donated to his marketing campaign and was going through each a federal prison investigation and likewise the potential foreclosures of a few of his properties.

The whistle-blowers got here ahead with considerations that Mr. Paxton gave the impression to be going out of his method to assist Mr. Paul. The articles of impeachment, based mostly partially on their testimony, laid out accusations that Mr. Paul had secured Mr. Paxton’s assistance on his authorized issues in trade for paying for renovations on his home and offering a job to a girl with whom Mr. Paxton was having an extramarital affair.

Both Mr. Paxton and Mr. Paul have denied any wrongdoing, and Mr. Paxton’s attorneys introduced proof that one of many renovations supposedly paid for by Mr. Paul — new granite counter tops — by no means occurred.

They succeeded at different instances in undercutting the witnesses for the prosecution, at one level getting a former senior aide to Mr. Paxton, Ryan Vassar, to say that he had reported the legal professional basic to the F.B.I. whereas bringing “no evidence” of potential crimes.

“You went to the F.B.I. on Sept. 30 with your compatriots and reported the elected attorney general of this state for a crime without any evidence, yes?” mentioned J. Mitchell Little, a lawyer for Mr. Paxton.

“That’s right, we took no evidence,” Mr. Vassar replied, although it was later famous that the whistle-blowers had introduced one thing simply as necessary: their very own testimony.

The protection argued that Mr. Paxton was a sufferer of a plot by reasonable Republicans to unseat him.

“You were staging a coup, weren’t you?” mentioned one of many protection attorneys, Mr. Buzbee, as he cross-examined Mr. Paxton’s former high aide, Jeff Mateer.

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Mateer mentioned.

After the vote, Mr. Buzbee applauded the consequence. “This was a herculean task,” he mentioned. “We were proud of this case. We just should not have had to prove our innocence, but that’s what we did.”

The proceedings on Saturday, after practically a full day of deliberations behind closed doorways the day earlier than, unfolded with none overt drama. The senators forged their votes for or towards impeachment, writing on a slip of paper on their desks and handing them as much as be learn aloud, one after the other, for every of the articles of impeachment.

As they voted, the Senate chamber was virtually fully silent. A storm handed over the Capitol, breaking the quiet with rumbles of thunder. Occasionally, the sound of crickets, which have swarmed over Austin in current days, could possibly be heard within the spectator gallery, and, in some circumstances, hopped between the chairs.

In the tip, the vote resembled many who happen within the staunchly conservative Texas Senate, the place Mr. Patrick guidelines with a powerful hand and laws is adopted virtually solely alongside party-line votes.