Fake Trans Pamphlets Sent to Texas Children Traced Through Postal Permit To Trump-Linked Printing Company

Pamphlets that falsely appeared to come from a transgender rights group and were addressed to students in Texas homes were sent using a bulk-mail permit held by an Illinois printing company, the US Postal Service has said.

The Postal Service identified Three Z Printing as the permit holder, although that does not establish who wrote or paid for the mailers.

One of the company's co-owners has posted photos of himself with Donald Trump on social media. The transgender group whose name was used is now asking a Texas court to help it unmask the sender.

Postal Permit Points to Illinois Printer

The USPS identified Three Z Printing, based in Teutopolis, Illinois, as the holder of the bulk-mail permit printed on the flyers, CBS News Texas reported on Friday, 23 October 2026.

Holding the permit does not mean the company printed the flyers, CBS News noted. A permit of this kind allows qualifying mail to be sent at discounted postage rates. The company's role beyond that remains unclear.

Three Z is owned by Bill Zerrusen and his three sons, including Matt Zerrusen, who lives in North Texas, CBS News reported on Monday. The broadcaster said it contacted the company and family members on Friday and had received no response.

Texas Observer journalist Steven Monacelli reported that Matt Zerrusen's social media accounts include photos of him with Trump and the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, The Advocate reported. The outlet presented the photos as drawing online scrutiny, not as evidence that he was involved in the mailers.

None of the reporting reviewed by IBTimes UK establishes any connection between the mailers and Trump or his campaign.

Mailers Addressed to Students

The pamphlets were marketed as a resource guide for LGBTQ+ students and were addressed to the 'student' of households across Texas, The Texas Tribune reported. They encouraged LGBTQ+ young people to seek help from advocacy groups if their parents did not support their gender identity.

The mailers named the sender as the Texas Transgender Student Union. Business records show an LLC of that name was formed in September through a registered agent service in Sheridan, Wyoming, whose Sheridan address is associated with more than 300,000 companies, according to CBS News. The mailers listed a Houston-area post office box.

After a CBS News visit, Northwest Registered Agent said it was 'immediately beginning the process to officially resign as the registered agent for the Texas Transgender Student Union'.

The pamphlets repeatedly referred to the Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, which says it had nothing to do with them. Its lawyer, Mimi Marziani, told the Tribune that they copied the group's 'look and feel' but mixed in resources TENT does not support, including information on the legal process for minors to be recognised as adults.

Text messages that used TENT's name and pointed recipients to its website were also sent, according to CBS News.

Court Fight and Forgery Probe

TENT filed a petition in Travis County on Thursday 22 October asking a judge to allow it to take depositions before filing a lawsuit, a process often used to identify unknown defendants. A hearing was set for Tuesday 27 October, and its outcome was not known at the time of writing.

The group wants to question the Wyoming LLC and a text-messaging company linked to the messages. CBS News said the hearing was not expected to determine who sent the flyers or whether any laws were broken.

The petition says the materials took TENT's name, photographs, branding and website without permission. A TENT spokesperson said they had been 'deliberately distributed in a manner calculated to cause maximum harm to TENT'.

'It is our belief, based on the content and timing of the messages and mailer, that it is a single, coordinated campaign,' Marziani said, according to The Advocate.

The group says its employees have received threats, including threats of violence. Its online resource centre went offline and it suspended planned events, including a statewide voter engagement drive.

Sarah Stogner, the Republican district attorney for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties in West Texas, has opened a separate forgery investigation. Forgery is a state jail felony in Texas.

'If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,' Stogner told the Tribune. She said the mailers were an obvious attempt to agitate voters before the midterms, and that her constituents were angry that children had been 'exposed' to the material.

Republican state Representative Jeff Leach had initially asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate after receiving text messages referencing TENT. In a second letter, he said new information suggested the materials 'may not originate from the group whose name it was sent under', and asked Paxton to identify the sender.

The mailers appeared as anti-transgender political advertising targeting James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate, who was already running. No connection between the advertisements and the mailers has been established. Paxton, Talarico's Republican opponent, and the Talarico campaign both told CBS News they had no connection to the mailers.

Some Democratic activists have suggested the flyers were designed to provoke Republican voters, while some Republicans have condemned their content, CBS News reported.