Who sent the mysterious text messages and mailers purporting to come from Texas transgender advocacy groups? Their identity was not revealed during a court hearing in downtown Austin on Tuesday, but Chris Hilton, who used to work for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, identified himself as the lawyer for the senders during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Hilton argued he should not have to divulge the names of his clients. Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer disagreed, and ruled that the clients must agree to answer questions about the matter later this week.
Texans across the political spectrum received the communications in recent weeks. They promoted resources for transgender, nonbinary and questioning youth and mentioned several different LGBTQ organizations across the state, including the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT).
But they stood out from the sea of text messages and pamphlets that voters receive during election season because TENT says it didn't send them.
Last week, the organization filed what's called a "Rule 202" petition in court, asking Soifer to allow it to force the senders to answer its questions in a deposition.
In court, Hilton said his clients will stop sending out the pamphlets but argued that their actions are protected by the First Amendment. He said TENT's rush to expose his clients' identity before the election is a political ploy, and "doxxing" or publicly revealing personal information about his client would cause them harm.
"They seek to inflict some of the same harms that they claim to be suffering, they seek to engage in electioneering," Hilton said.
Mimi Marziani, one of TENT's attorneys, countered that the communications led to harassment and threats against TENT staff and that they could amount to illegally impersonating the nonprofit.
"Somebody has been impersonating our client and sending out millions of unauthorized text messages and mailers to voters across Texas, intentionally creating confusion for voters and strife," Marziani told reporters after the hearing.
She added TENT is "very pleased" with Soifer's ruling, which Hilton has appealed.
What we know so far about the texts and mailers
Political consultants, attorneys and civil rights advocates speculate the communications were part of an effort to foment anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, either to prompt voters to select Republican candidates or dampen their enthusiasm for Democrats. But there's no way to know for sure until the true identity of their senders comes out.
Hilton's connection to the matter is notable because he used to work for Paxton and represented him during his impeachment trial in 2023. Paxton, who is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate, has taken an active stance on transgender issues.
He's also gone after his Democratic opponent, Texas State Rep. James Talarico, for statements he's made in the past in support of transgender youth, with ads that claim "Talarico is for they/them."
Hilton would not respond to questions from reporters after the court hearing. Paxton's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For now, all that's known is that the text messages came from a phone number with a West Texas area code that was registered with a telecommunications company called Infobip. The mailers were sent by an LLC called the "Texas Transgender Student Union," which was formed in Wyoming last month.
Marziani told Soifer she estimated between 3.6 and 4.2 million mailers were sent. The address listed on them is one digit removed from the correct address for TENT's P.O. Box. In court, Hilton said the address should have in fact been the same as TENT's and attributed the difference to a typo.
Hilton said he is the lawyer for the unnamed customer who registered the phone number with Infobip, and he is also the Wyoming LLC's lawyer. Soifer ruled that a representative for the LLC will have to sit for a deposition over Zoom on Friday, while Infobip must provide written answers to questions from TENT by Thursday.
Infobip and TENT agreed on a protective order that will keep some of the customer's confidential information private, which Soifer said she will sign. The company previously told The Texas Newsroom it does not generally have control over messages sent by its customers, other than to filter out material such as hate speech, alcohol marketing or sexually explicit content.
Republican West Texas prosecutor Sarah Stogner launched an investigation into the mailers as potential forgery last week, which is a state jail felony, after a neighbor in her jurisdiction received one. A grand jury could subpoena anyone involved to testify about who created and paid for the mailers, where the mailing list came from and whether there's been any improper use of personal information.
Stogner said her office is currently only investigating the mailers, not the texts.
Copyright 2026 KUT News