The Colorado Republican Party intends to file a lawsuit to determine who posted an unauthorized message to its official Twitter account the night of the state convention but is giving the perpetrator the chance to come clean and avoid legal action, according to an email obtained by The Colorado Statesman.

Following the Ted Cruz campaign’s sweep of Colorado’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention on April 9, a tweet reading, “We did it. #NeverTrump,” appeared briefly on the @ColoGOP Twitter feed, referring to a movement among some Republicans to deny Donald Trump the presidential nomination.

While state Republican officials swiftly disavowed the tweet, asserting that the message was unauthorized, and deleted it from the party’s Twitter feed, it helped set off an explosive controversy over Trump’s performance in Colorado, where the real estate billionaire won just a handful of alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Officials with the Trump campaign have said they plan to contest Colorado’s delegate selection process. Meanwhile, state GOP officials have said that party officers, staff and their family members have been subject to “harassment and death threats” in the wake of the #NeverTrump tweet and the Cruz camp’s success with state RNC delegates.

Saying that the state GOP “has been engaged in dialogue with Twitter in an attempt to identify the source of the Tweet,” Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve House wrote in an email sent Tuesday evening that it appears Twitter will require state Republicans to “initiate a lawsuit and issue a subpoena” before the social media company will reveal more information about where the #NeverTrump tweet originated.

According to the email — sent to individuals and companies who “have had access to the @ColoGOP Twitter account” — the state GOP has turned up “evidence this tweet was sent via Twitter for iPhone” but is unable to determine more without filing a lawsuit and obtaining a subpoena.

“Because of the seriousness of this matter, the party intends to pursue such legal process to compel Twitter to produce the IP address from which the tweet originated,” the email reads. “The Colorado GOP is confident that once it has the IP address it will be able to identify the individual or company that issued the tweet. It will then seek recovery from the individual and/or company that issued the tweet for the cost associated with its investigation, legal efforts and the harassment of its officials and staff.”

However, the email continues, “the Colorado GOP is prepared to waive any legal claims against the sender if that person or company comes forward immediately.” The email asks whoever posted the #NeverTrump tweet to get in touch with the party’s executive director by 5 p.m. Wednesday “so this can be addressed without pursuing legal recourse.”

A spokesman for the Colorado Republican Party verified the authenticity of the email though declined to say how many individuals and companies were on the recipient list. He told The Statesman that the GOP hadn’t received any responses to the email by mid afternoon Wednesday.

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com