If you have been charged with blackmail by state or federal prosecutors in Texas, you need to be very careful about what you say and do. Blackmail can be charged as a felony at both the state and federal level, with sentencing that includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and decades in prison. Even if you are only being charged with a misdemeanor, a misdemeanor blackmail conviction in state or federal court can have a lifetime of consequences due in no small part to the fact that employers and landlords have the right to ask about past criminal convictions (and even past criminal charges) when screening potential employees and tenants.