In a February 15 article entitled “A Lubbock woman says she and State Rep. Brooks Landgraf are both victims of a dirty campaign by Landgraf’s GOP challenger Casey Gray,” Tiffany Wilson seems to create a narrative that text messages leaked onto the internet that appear to be between her and Landgraf are fake, however, the images of her embedded in the messages are real – and she has no idea how they were seemingly used in these “fake” texts.
She is further quoted telling the Odessa American that after she met Gray and Slocum at an event in Odessa in January that her images unexplainably appeared on the internet – a reference to a Current Revolt story where a long chain of text messages was published alleging they were part of an affair involving Landgraf, and those texts included the images Wilson is referencing of herself.
Supporters of Landgraf have been quick to share the headline of this story as proof that Wilson and Landgraf are vindicated and rather are victims of a diabolical scheme by Gray and Slocum.
However, if you are having trouble following the details of her explanation, it’s because her story doesn’t seem to hold water.
In fact, the accusations Wilson is making against Gray and Slocum constitute a 180-degree turn compared to the first allegations she has made.
Let’s set the record straight.
Wilson’s First Allegations
In January of 2022, I was contacted by a man I had recently met, Tom Slocum, because he is running for office, and I interviewed him for an Odessa Headlines story about his campaign.
Slocum told me a woman he knows approached him regarding needing his advice on what to do about an issue she was wanting to come forward to the media with.
The woman claimed she had been in an affair with State Representative Brooks Landgraf, and due to an apparent element of public concern I was told she felt prompted to come forward.
Slocum indicated to me that she wanted to see what options were available to tell her story while keeping her identity concealed, at least to a certain extent, and that he would pass along my number.
I later received a call from the woman, who I told that if this was simply about two adults having a consensual relationship, I was not interested nor did I feel it was newsworthy unless there was something more to it. She told me there was, and we agreed to meet for an interview, where I would tell her if I would take the story or refer her to another news outlet.
On January 31, we finally met, and I first learned of her identity upon introduction: Tiffany Wilson of Lubbock.
During our discussion, I began with telling her about my background, how I used to volunteer on campaigns, including how I volunteered on Landgraf’s first campaign, and then his first challenger’s campaign in years past then went into media and told her about a number of the stories I have written on both the present HD-81 race, as well as past coverage of Landgraf.
Then the conversation turned towards her issue, and she described how during an Oilfield Connections event at Rolling 7’s Ranch in October of 2020 she first met Landgraf. She also described how after the event they met up and began their affair at the Elegante Hotel that night.
That was the only time she claimed they had sex, and from there a phone relationship began.
She went on to describe how extremely lewd the phone relationship evolved, and that the only reason she went along with much of it was that she needed someone to talk to.
Wilson then went on to say she was not sure if he took advantage of her and her state of mind at the time, or if she just didn’t care – describing how she fell into a “dark place.”
I asked her if during the affair if she felt that Landgraf could recognize she was in a vulnerable state of mind, to which she indicated yes.
It is also important to note that she told me she wasn’t accusing Landgraf of committing a crime, and that she consented to everything.
Wilson also describes how during their relationship she would tell Landgraf she wanted to meet the governor, and she gave an example of a voice text he sent her saying “I know I know I’m trying.”
Wilson laid her phone on the desk and showed me messages via text and social media between her and Landgraf, and after reviewing them I told her I felt she may have two legitimate elements of public concern for a story.
The first is if he took advantage of her in her vulnerable state, and her concern he might be doing it to other women. I told her I had heard about a number of other possible instances of affairs, but nothing had ever materialized.
The second element was the repeated attempts in the texts to get her access to the governor on multiple occasions – this was because she said she wanted to meet him and indicated it would show people she was still on top of things and “in with the governor.” I also asked her if she was able to gain access to the governor because of his efforts to which she responded that she did not ever go through with it.
During the interview, Wilson told me she gave a screen recording of the messages to Slocum and that I could go over the messages in detail with him.
I told her that Slocum had not indicated to me that he has anything, and regardless of if he does, I would rather not look at anything from a third person, admonishing her to not involve “satellites” meaning people floating around with this evidence, otherwise it would be difficult to control.
I told her I appreciate her for coming forward and it’s not an easy thing. I told her I respect her privacy and that I would do everything I can to help facilitate the story to ensure it accurately reflects her story, but then I told her that while there may be other women out there, the odds are Landgraf will know she wrote the story, cautioning her that she risks being identified if she goes through with it.
She indicated she was ok with that, and then proceeded to tell me how she knows there’s another woman that there is a video of but that the woman doesn’t want to expose her identity.
I told her that I would set up a meeting with a reporter from Texas Scorecard and that she would need to make the texts available to them to review and verify their authenticity, to which she agreed to do.
Later that day I sent a joint text message introducing Wilson to the reporter, and she responded saying she wanted to meet once an approaching cold front had passed.
Several days of silence went by and after several attempts to contact her with no response, we figured she had decided not to proceed with the story and left it at that.
The Truth Needs to Come Out
In Wilson’s newspaper interview, she is quoted as saying “the truth needs to come out.”
I agree.
That is why I am revealing enough details of our conversation to show a stark contradiction between Wilson’s latest allegations, and her first – to undo the harm to Slocum, who I believe in good faith referred her to Odessa Headlines because he felt she had an important issue the public should be aware of.
After a substantial portion of the texts I recognized that Wilson showed me on her phone appeared on the internet in a Current Revolt story on February 9, both myself and the reporter from the Texas Scorecard received a text from Wilson saying she planned to sue us.
She then went on to say she would be on the news first thing in the morning, and further said “As you know this is a fake story. Not my Phone number. Please remove immediately.”
The next day in the early afternoon, we received another text message from Wilson, now reversing course and telling us she now wants to come forward to the media saying, “I think it’s only fair I speak out. Would you like it to be with your magazine or someone else’s? Because I am going to the media.”
Neither of us responded due to her legal threat the night before.
Wilson has now crafted two very conflicting stories.
The first is her coming forward to Odessa Headlines to tell her story and show her evidence regarding her allegations against Landgraf.
That account is extremely detailed, has many elements that could be and have been corroborated, and because of the convincing nature of it, I was willing to recommend her to a larger media outlet that was better suited to further review and authenticate the validity of her allegations before publishing a story.
Her second story doesn’t add up, and it makes no mention that she sat down with the media already and gave a lengthy and detailed account of allegations that contradicts everything she is now saying. But it does, however, seem useful for vindicating herself and Landgraf.
Lastly, due to the statement that Wilson’s legal counsel has contacted Lubbock authorities regarding her latest allegations, Odessa Headlines legal counsel will be contacting authorities in Lubbock to offer our audio recording of her first allegations for their review.