Republican DA launches investigation to find culprit behind fake trans mailers in Texas

A Republican district attorney has launched a criminal investigation into the mailers sent to thousands of Texas voters posing as guides from a transgender rights organization, all while a company is taking initial steps to end its role as a registered agent for a Wyoming LLC believed to be behind them.As The Advocate has previously reported, an unknown party began distributing mailers and text messages from a group called the Texas Transgender Student Union earlier this month, falsely claiming to represent the Transgender Education Network of Texas nonprofit to residents across the state. Some of those mailers and texts contain inflammatory messages that TENT says it neither created nor authorized.During a Thursday afternoon press briefing, Mimi Marziani, an attorney representing TENT, announced that the organization had filed a petition in Travis County court to uncover who is behind the impersonation campaign, stating it has had a staggering impact.“This incident has led to extraordinary damage to TENT as an organization, and also to threats that continue to come in against TENT staff,” Marziani told reporters during a Zoom call.Related: Texas trans rights group says text message impersonation campaign sparked hateThe mystery is getting additional help after Sarah Stogner, district attorney for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties west of Odessa, told The Texas Tribune her office has opened a criminal investigation into the mailers as potential forgery, a state jail felony in Texas. Stogner added the investigation could widen as more details are discovered.“If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,” Stogner said, telling the Tribune that the timing of these mailers being so close to Election Day was not a mistake.“If we were actually worried about kids and their safety, no one would be sending propaganda to spread that message further on television ads, in text messages, in written whatever,” she said.