The Texas Supreme Court has paused a court-ordered deposition seeking to identify who sent the Texas trans mailers. The court’s online docket on Monday, Nov. 2, still listed the administrative stay issued Friday, with no later order posted.
The justices halted a court-ordered deposition Friday, 15 minutes before it was set to start, and didn’t explain why. TENT lawyer Mimi Marziani called the other side’s emergency request “highly unusual,” CBS News Texas reported.
Who’s behind the Wyoming company that mailed the “Texas Transgender Student Union” pamphlets is still unknown. Sworn answers from Infobip, a texting company, named “Republican Women Caucus Fund” and “John Braun” in connection with the earlier fake trans texts. The similarly named Republican Women’s Caucus Fund denies involvement, and the identity of the Braun named in the answers has not been established.
“It’s clear to me that this was a false flag operation by right-wing operatives,” Marziani said Friday, CBS reported.
Texas Supreme Court Halts the Texas Transgender Student Union Deposition
Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered the depositions last week. Her Oct. 28 ruling found TENT is “suffering injuries, including harassment, threats, diversion of resources, and frustration of operations.” At a hearing the next day, she said TENT deserved to hear “from the horse’s mouth” why the messages went out, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The company’s lawyers sought relief directly from the Texas Supreme Court. Judd Stone, one of its lawyers, filed an emergency motion late Thursday, and the court issued an administrative stay Friday. The case, No. 26-1246, came straight from Travis County, the court’s order list shows. Justice James P. Sullivan didn’t take part.
The freeze is temporary. The group’s petition and its motion for temporary relief “remain pending before this Court,” the order list notes.
Chris Hilton, another of the company’s lawyers, told Soifer the First Amendment and Texas law “do not bend for speech that is unpopular,” the Austin American-Statesman reported. The group says a deposition would violate its right to speak anonymously, the Tribune reported.
Republican Women’s Caucus Fund Denies Sending the Fake Trans Texts
Infobip answered TENT’s written questions Thursday, naming two customers behind the texts: the “Republican Women Caucus Fund” and a “John Braun.” The name in the answers differs from that of the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund.
The Republican Women’s Caucus Fund is the political arm of a group of GOP women in Congress. “We did not authorize, fund, direct, coordinate, or participate in these activities in any capacity,” a spokesperson told the Texas Tribune.
On Sunday, PAC lawyer Steve Roberts said it wasn’t clear why Infobip named the group. He said it never had a contract with the messaging company and denied any role in the mailers, the Tribune reported.
Washington state Sen. John Braun, a Republican whose campaign shares a treasurer with the PAC, also denied involvement, the Tribune reported, citing the Texas Observer. Marziani said Friday that no other evidence yet shows he’s the Braun in Infobip’s answers, KPRC 2 reported. She said “a lot of questions remain about this shadowy campaign,” KXAN reported.
TENT Plans a Lawsuit Over the Texas Trans Mailers
TENT intends to sue the Texas Transgender Student Union, the Morning News reported Friday. Marziani said TENT already has enough information to sue some of the people responsible but wouldn’t get into specifics, the Tribune reported.
“Uncovering these names is an early step in the process of addressing this injustice to our organization,” Andrea Segovia, TENT’s deputy director, told KXAN.
Segovia said the campaign targeted trans people to pull focus from high gas and grocery prices. “Yet again,” she told the Morning News, “cruelty is the point.”
TENT believes the texts and mailers were coordinated, though Marziani said nothing yet ties them to one sender. She told the Morning News the senders “were trying to trick Republican and conservative-leaning voters and create division among the electorate.”
In court, she argued the mailers were meant to drive conservative turnout in the U.S. Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, the Chronicle reported. Both campaigns told CBS News Texas they weren’t involved.
Hilton sees it the other way around. He has called TENT’s push “electioneering.” “They seek to inflict some of the same harms that they claim to be suffering,” he argued, Chron reported.
A Waxahachie Mom and Sarah Stogner’s West Texas Forgery Probe
The pamphlets came addressed to the “students” in each household. “I am upset about it because it feels like they’re weaponizing my feelings as a parent,” Madeline Bracken of Waxahachie told FOX 4 on Oct. 20.
Sarah Stogner, the Republican district attorney for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties, opened a forgery investigation into the mailers in October. “If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,” she told the Tribune.
TENT is cooperating with her office, Marziani said. Stogner’s investigation won’t wrap up until after Tuesday’s election, KUT reported.
