Updated on Aug. 1, 2019 at 1:22 a.m. with comment from Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, at 10:45 p.m. with comment from Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, and at 9:30 p.m. with comment from Speaker Dennis Bonnen.

AUSTIN — Michael Quinn Sullivan, the hardline conservative activist who accused House Speaker Dennis Bonnen of targeting fellow Republicans in next year's primary, has threatened to release audio of the meeting if Bonnen did not "recant the lies and misrepresentations he has made."

On Wednesday, Sullivan said he had recorded the June 12 meeting where the alleged the offer was made, and he gave Bonnen and Republican caucus chairman Dustin Burrows, who was also at the meeting, an ultimatum.

"Speaker Bonnen and Rep. Burrows must recant their false claims. All of them. Immediately," Sullivan wrote on his blog. "If they do not, I believe I will be obligated to release the recording — in whole or in part, I haven't decided yet — so as to set straight the record they have tried to contort."

Late Wednesday, Bonnen responded defiantly.

"Mr. Sullivan, release your recording. Release it in its entirety."

Bonnen has denied giving Sullivan a target list and said he held the meeting to "protect my Republican colleagues." The Angleton Republican has said that taking the meeting was a mistake and that Sullivan orchestrated it to "further create chaos among our caucus."

But three Republican lawmakers told The Dallas Morning News they heard the audio and that it largely confirmed Sullivan's account of the events.

Rep. Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, who was on the alleged political hit list, listened to the audio and said what he heard "was consistent with what [Sullivan] wrote in his blog." Bonnen made "disparaging" comments about both Republicans and Democrats in the Texas House, Clardy said, and Burrows mentioned GOP members who could be targeted in their primary elections.

"They were made flippantly and they were disrespectful," he added. "It was repugnant. This is my fourth term and this is the most disappointing thing that I've ever seen."

Since there was no video of the meeting, he did not see a physical list of targeted members. But Clardy said it sounded like Bonnen left the room after which Burrows named several Republicans "that should be targeted or could be targeted without repercussion."

"I was most decidedly on the list," he said. When pressed on whether Bonnen named GOP targets as well, Clardy said, "my recollection was, 'yes.' "

Clardy encouraged other House members to listen for themselves, after which he hopes they make a "clear, responsible decision for how we're going to go forward as a body." He holds no malice for Bonnen and Burrows, he added, who he welcomed to address the members in person to "try to set the record straight if there's something we have misunderstood or missed."

"If there's ever been a time that the Texas House of Representatives needs to function as a truly thoughtful body, it's right now," Clardy said. "I don't know how this happened. Good people make mistakes."

Steve Toth, a Republican from the Woodlands who was not on the alleged target list, spoke out earlier Wednesday evening.

"What I derived from the audio tape is that Speaker Bonnen was not truthful," Toth said in a prepared statement. "A list was provided during the meeting and the speaker referenced the list multiple times. Honestly I was caught off guard and shocked. I supported Dennis from day one and am embarrassed how poorly his actions reflect on the Republican Party."

Earlier Wednesday, Bedford Rep. Jonathan Stickland also said he heard the audio. He said the tape is more than an hour long, is "clear and easy to hear" and both Bonnen and Burrows can be heard on it.

"I'm shocked at the public lies and manipulation the speaker has tried to engage in," Stickland said. "Texas deserves truth, honesty and a better moral compass than Bonnen is giving us."

Stickland, who will not seek reelection to the Legislature next session, has often butted heads with Bonnen and is a political ally of Sullivan's. He has received more in political donations from Empower Texans, the conservative group that Sullivan runs, than any other House member in the last decade, pulling in nearly $434,000 since 2012.

Toth has also received campaign contributions from Empower Texans to the tune of $50,000 over the last four years.

Sullivan said he invited Republican lawmakers, party officials and conservative movement leaders to his office to listen to the audio in the presence of his lawyers.

Last Thursday, Sullivan, a frequent critic of GOP leadership, wrote on his blog that Bonnen and Burrows offered to give writers for his website House media credentials in the next legislative session if the group targeted 10 Republican incumbents. Bonnen also asked Sullivan to refrain from criticizing the legislative session and to not spend money to unseat other GOP incumbents.

The list allegedly included Reps. Tan Parker of Flower Mound, Steve Allison of San Antonio, Trent Ashby of Lufkin, Ernest Bailes of Shepherd, Drew Darby of San Angelo, Kyle Kacal and John Raney of College Station, Stan Lambert of Abilene, Phil Stephenson of Wharton and Clardy.

Clardy said that the audio was being made available to the House Republican Caucus "without redactions, in its entirety" and that other members were making arrangements to listen to the tape Thursday.

The still unsubstantiated allegation embroiled Bonnen and the Republican caucus in its first major scandal under the first-term speaker. But Bonnen did not publicly address the allegation until four days later, when he issued a forceful denial Monday and defended Burrows, saying he had asked him not to comment.

Burrows, whom Sullivan accused of providing the 10-person target list, still has not commented publicly.

"There is almost no aspect of the June 12 meeting, or the events leading up to it, about which Bonnen has not lied," Sullivan wrote Wednesday. "He lied about my follow-up text message to him setting up the meeting he requested. He lied about making a specific proposal to grant media credentials to Texas Scorecard reporters in exchange for our political action and inaction. And he lied about me being read a list of 10 Republican members he hoped someone would challenge and we would fund against."

He doubled down on the claim that Bonnen and Burrows provided him a list of Republicans to target.

"Burrows read the full list of who to target — and not target — after being instructed to do so by Bonnen," Sullivan wrote. "However, at one point in the meeting Bonnen could not help himself; he started naming Republican names to be targeted, before catching himself and deferring to Burrows to complete the task."

"Bonnen said in the meeting: 'The speaker of the House shouldn't tell you some folks to go pop.' But he did just that. Worse, he offered official actions in exchange for those pops."

Sullivan said he never intended to release the audio and recorded it only for his protection. He accused Bonnen of lying about an incident earlier this year when gun rights activist Chris McNutt went to Bonnen's neighborhood in Lake Jackson while he was not there to advocate for "open carry" gun legislation.

After McNutt's actions, Bonnen killed the bill and called McNutt's visit a "gutless intimidation tactic" when he knew Bonnen was at the Capitol and his family was home alone. Bonnen then began receiving death threats on his social media pages.

Later, McNutt released video from a state trooper's body camera that showed him in Bonnen's neighborhood talking to the troopers and handing them several copies of fliers in support of the open carry legislation. The conversation was not combative and the trooper offered to drop off the flyer at Bonnen's door.

After the June 12 meeting, Sullivan said he thought Bonnen "was setting the stage to do to me what he had done to McNutt."

"My intention has been, and remains, that Dennis Bonnen retract his proposal, apologize for the position he put me in, and — now — recant the lies and misrepresentations he has made," Sullivan wrote. "I will not be the victim he intended."

"I recorded the meeting because Bonnen is known not only for misrepresenting the truth but for being hot-tempered, impulsive, and undisciplined," he wrote. "The recording captures that."

Sullivan said he has not released the audio because it "may damage innocent bystanders — most notably the Republican Party of Texas and Republican politicians [including those with whom I disagree on matters of policy or philosophy]."

"Bonnen said things in the meeting I expect the Democrats will use against Republicans," Sullivan said. "If the Democrats use the recording effectively, that could ultimately be harmful to Texas taxpayers."

He said he had told Republican Party Chairman James Dickey about the recording and encouraged "him to take action cleaning up the GOP's messy House." A spokesman for Dickey confirmed that the meeting with Sullivan occurred but had no further comment.