DENVER (AP) — A lawyer for the Colorado Republican Party has spoken with prosecutors about the state party chairman’s accusation that the attorney general and others tried to blackmail him into resigning, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The discussions, Republican spokesman Owen Loftus said, concerned a meeting last week between Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House and three people who supported his recent campaign: Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and Pueblo County Republican Chairwoman Becky Mizel.
House has said the three told him to step down or else he would have to deal with false reports saying he cheated on his wife.
Coffman has called the allegations “rumors and lies.”
Tancredo and Mizel, meanwhile, have both said the meeting didn’t go as House described, but they don’t deny trying to remove him.
House has refused to resign.
Loftus confirmed the conversations with prosecutors, but he wouldn’t give additional details.
The scandal has roiled Colorado Republicans and cast a shadow over the party’s hopes for a successful 2016 election in a pivotal swing state. It’s also damaged Coffman, a rising star in the party.
