Things got really interesting Tuesday, Oct. 27,, at a court hearing on the controversial transgender mailers and text messages sent across Texas last week. The quest to unmask whoever is behind the multimillion dollar effort to scare parents to vote Republican in the midterm elections is getting closer to the source.
What’s known so far is that the same lawyers who defended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — now the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas — are defending Texas Transgender Student Union, the likely fake organization credited with the mailers and text messages.
On Oct. 10 and 13, someone impersonating a real group — Transgender Education Network of Texas — sent out mass text messages through the company Infobip. The text messages purported to offer resources for students who want information on transgender identity.
Then, on the first day of early voting in Texas, the first of an estimated 3.6 to 4.2 million brochures landed in voter mailboxes across Texas. Like the text messages, the brochures used TENT’s logo and images and directed recipients to the organization’s website. Some of the messaging in the brochure was about how to subvert parental oversight and gain emancipation.
Neither the text messages nor the brochure were representative of the work TENT does. Yet the messages and brochure all linked back to TENT’s real website.
Media outlets and legal representatives across the state have been on a hunt to find out who created and sent the messages and the mailer.
Texas reporter Steven Monacelli was the first to trace the brochures to a Wyoming-based shell company, Texas Transgender Student Union. TTSU was created by a Registered Agent on Sept. 6. All those involved so far have refused to reveal the true identity of who created and paid for the work.
The Texas Observer was able to link the barcode on the mailers to a political mail tracking company, Snailworks. It turns out the only federal campaign payments to Snailworks in 2026 (payments which are publicly available) are from the National Republican Congressional Committee. Snailworks confirmed they were hired to track the mail and refused to disclose who paid them.
On Oct. 20, lawyers for TENT filed a pre-lawsuit petition, known as a Form 202, in Travis County District Court asking a judge to order representatives from Infobip and TTSU to sit for depositions and reveal who is behind the texts and mailings.
And that’s where things got interesting on Tuesday.
Chris Hilton
Texas Transgender Student Union was represented in court by Chris Hilton of the law firm Stone Hilton. Hilton worked in Paxton’s office from January 2017 until May 2023 — the same month Paxton was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House General Investigating Committee. His law firm partner, Judd Stone, worked for Sen. Ted Cruz before joining Paxton’s office in February 2020. In early 2021, Paxton appointed him solicitor general of Texas after the previous solicitor general resigned in protest of Paxton’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Hilton and Stone were two of the six lawyers in the Texas Attorney General’s Office who took a leave of absence to defend Paxton in his impeachment trial. Now, these same attorneys are defending TTSU.
Hilton’s defense of whoever is behind the brochures is that the disinformation campaign is constitutionally protected free speech. He encouraged the judge to rule against TENT’s petition that depositions happen this week.
But judge ruled for TENT and ordered TTSU and Infobip to comply with depositions by this Friday.
That’s when Hilton threw the judge a curveball: “Separately from TTSU, I also represent the parties who are clients of Infobip.”
At this point, the deposition of Infobip is scheduled for Thursday. TTSU’s is scheduled for Friday. Hilton has said he will appeal the ruling that will unmask who his clients are.
Hilton and Stone also happen to be the lead attorneys for Elon Musk’s X Corp. in his ongoing lawsuit against Media Matters for America (and for the countersuit brought by Media Matters against X Corp.). Musk has spent nearly half a billion dollars on the midterms — including vast sums in support of Paxton.
CBS News uncovered the owner of the bulk mail insignia used to mail the brochures. The Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli also discovered the insignia’s owner, Three Z Printing in Teutopolis, Ill., has Texas ties.
Three Z Printing is owned by Bill Zerrusan, whose son Matthew Zerrusan lives in Flower Mound, a northern suburb of Dallas. Federal Election Commission records show the family has donated more than $700,000 to Trump-aligned organizations over the years.
Related:
Here’s a clue about the fake trans mailers | Analysis by Mara Richards Bim
Fake trans mailers and texts aim to scare Texans to vote for Paxton | Analysis by Josh Olds