A district attorney in West Texas announced Thursday that her office has opened a criminal probe into thousands of mailed pamphlets that pretended to be issued by a transgender-rights group. The investigation treats the mailings as forgery, a charge classified as a state jail felony under Texas statutes, and officials suggest the timing – weeks before the November midterms – was intentional.
Legal action and investigative scope
Sarah Stogner, the elected prosecutor for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties, said the inquiry will begin by tracing the return addresses and the paper trail of the printed kits. She warned that the case could broaden as new evidence surfaces, noting that the alleged deception appears designed to sway voter sentiment. “If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,” Stogner told reporters, adding that genuine concern for children would not involve spreading propaganda through unsolicited mail.
Who is behind the counterfeit “Texas Transgender Student Union”?
The flyers listed a sender called the Texas Transgender Student Union, which, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State, registered as a limited-liability company on September 2 in Sheridan, Wyoming. The address printed on the pamphlet was a Houston-area PO box, while the incorporated entity’s official registered-agent location belongs to a service that handles mail for thousands of businesses nationwide. Northwest Registered Agent, the firm providing that service, announced to a local TV station that it is resigning as the LLC’s registered agent and has no involvement in its day-to-day operations.
Investigators also focused on two third-party companies that may have facilitated distribution. TENT’s attorney, Mimi Marziani, sent a cease-and-desist letter to SnailWorks, a Maryland-based direct-mail firm, and another to Infobip, a communications platform that controlled the phone numbers used in a coordinated text-message surge. While Infobip agreed to block further messages, it declined to reveal the account holders, and SnailWorks has not yet responded.
Impact on the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)
The nonprofit known as the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) has been forced to pull its online resource center and suspend a statewide voter-engagement campaign it had been planning for months. The organization says the counterfeit flyers copied the look and feel of its legitimate materials, but mixed in content the group does not endorse – including guidance on how minors might be recognized as adults in court. Since the campaign began, TENT staff have reported a surge in online harassment and direct threats, prompting the group to seek legal remedies and public assistance in identifying the perpetrators.
State Representative Jeff Leach, a Republican from Plano, wrote to Attorney General Ken Paxton requesting a separate investigation into both the mailed flyers and the related text messages. Leach argues that the communications could violate state laws governing student-organized groups and the material taught in public schools. His letters also urge the AG’s office to uncover the true identity of the entity masquerading as the student union.
As the inquiry proceeds, Stogner emphasized that any party attempting to manipulate the electorate through deceptive outreach would face the full weight of Texas law. The district attorney’s office plans to coordinate with federal authorities, the registered-agent company, and the mailing service providers to piece together the chain of custody that led to the distribution of the misleading pamphlets.
