Texas judge orders depositions in transgender mailers case

A Travis County judge has ruled that attorneys for the Transgender Education Network can question the people behind a mystery mailer that's created a lot of anger and confusion here in Texas days before the midterms. Fox 4's Sean Rabb has our report. Sean. Heather, here's the mailer. This one was sent to a family in Mesquite, and it's a quad fold. It's multicolor. It's expensive. From an organization, the return address says the Texas Transgender Student Union. We don't believe that's real. A West Texas district attorney has launched a criminal investigation. And while that Austin judge has said this group, the Texas Transgender Student Union, can be deposed, they have attorneys who filed an appeal. A mystery mailer addressed to students in a household to educate them about transgender options is the source of both legal actions and criminal investigations. My investigation is ongoing. I have investigators that are in the process of working it. Sarah Stogna is a Republican district attorney from West Texas who opened a criminal investigation after, she says, State Rep. Jeff Leach's request to Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate were ignored and when the mailer landed in the mailbox of someone in her jurisdiction. It seems pretty clear that the intent is probably to impact elections, but my jurisdiction from what I've seen, I don't think that there's any sort of election law that's necessarily been violated under our current statutes. So I'm investigating it as a potential forgery, given that it purports to come from organizations that did not send it, and it appears to be an attempt to harm those organizations. The organization TENT, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, denies sending the mailers. TENT filed a petition in an Austin court for discovery to find out who is behind them. Names, locations, that kind of thing. So then I can assess whether I have a lawsuit and can proceed with that. The judge granted their request. Chris Hilton, an Austin attorney who previously worked for Ken Paxton in the Attorney General's office, represents the Wyoming LLC behind the mailer who want to keep their identity hidden. In court documents, Hilton's response argues his client has a First Amendment right to stay in the shadows. So help viewers understand one time how I can put something out that appears to be from you, though it's not, that creates havoc and consternation and it's okay for me not to reveal who I am. Right, so that's the issue here. The argument they're making against tent is there's a long tradition in this country you can speak anonymously that's fine except not if you're being fraudulent about who you are our point isn't about what you're saying it's about who you say you are you're using that process that does have legitimate reasons in a misleading kind of way so the appeal goes to the third court of appeals that's in the Austin Travis County area we'll see what happens there meanwhile the folks who filed for this discovery TENT the Transgender Education Network. They want this all to happen quickly because they hope that we can find out who's behind this group right before election day. That's not likely to happen. Certainly, it should take longer, could take longer than one week. And the district attorney from West Texas says she thinks it'll take many weeks, maybe even months before we find out who's really behind the mailer. Right. And election day is going to be here before we know it. Clock's ticking. Sean, thank you. Appreciate it.