Referencing lines in email text - latex

Question

I'm trying to use Latex for a purpose it's probably not quite designed for and unsurprisingly having some difficulty. I'm attempting to include text from a series of emails, and then I want to write a summary that refers to line numbers within the emails, drawing attention to certain portions of a conversation.
For line numbering, I've found the lineno package works well and allows me to set up my reference targets with \linelabel{label1} macros, which can then be referenced with \ref{label1}.
However, as email chains in text format have many characters that need escaped such as > characters, I've been looking for a package that will allow me to treat the text as preformatted text while also still parsing the \linelabel Latex macro.
I've tried the verbatim environment and the lstlisting environment, but both appear to ignore the \linelabel macro. Is anyone aware of a package that does what I'm looking for?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Added MWE. Runs in overleaf. Demonstrates that with lineno package I can successfully get line numbers to be output and they can be referenced when labels are defined in email content, but there are many characters that would need to be escaped. Also shows putting the email content within a lstlisting block, which formats the email more nicely but loses the linelabel macro parsing. Looking for a happy medium.
\documentclass[12pt,stdletter,orderfromtodate,sigleft]{newlfm}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstset{basicstyle=\footnotesize,stringstyle=\footnotesize,language=,}
\usepackage{lineno}
\begin{document}
\section{Summary}
Refer to line \ref{label1}. And then he did it again on line \ref{label2}.
\newpage
\linenumbers
\section{Emails with no formatting}
Email response number 2
On Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 9:15 AM Anonymous wrote:
> Hi Umptyscrunch,
>
> I'm letting you know that I did that thing.
>
> Thanks,
> Marklar
>
Hi Marklar,
\linelabel{label1} Yeahhh. I'm going to need you to come in this Saturday.
Thanks,
Umptyscrunch
---------- Forwarded message ---------
No rush, it's all good my friend. It's a minimal working example.
\section{Emails with listing formatting}
\begin{lstlisting}
Email response number 2
On Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 9:15 AM Anonymous wrote:
> Hi Umptyscrunch,
>
> I'm letting you know that I did that thing.
>
> Thanks,
> Marklar
>
Hi Marklar,
\linelabel{label2} Yeahhh. I'm going to need you to come in this Saturday.
Thanks,
Umptyscrunch
---------- Forwarded message ---------
No rush, it's all good my friend. It's a minimal working example.
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

Answer 1

I would use the listings package. It can show line numbers, reference specific lines and you can even colour replies:
\documentclass[12pt,stdletter,orderfromtodate,sigleft]{newlfm}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstset{
basicstyle=\footnotesize\ttfamily,
stringstyle=\footnotesize,
escapeinside={&}{&},
numbers=left,
morecomment=[l][\color{blue!80}]{> },
morecomment=[l][\color{red!80}]{>> },
}
\begin{document}
\section{Summary}
Refer to line \ref{label2}.
\begin{lstlisting}
Email response number 2
On Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 9:15 AM Anonymous wrote:
> Hi Umptyscrunch,
>
> I'm letting you know that I did that thing.
>
>> previous reply
>
> Thanks,
> Marklar
>
Hi Marklar,
&\label{label2}&Yeahhh. I'm going to need you to come in this Saturday.
Thanks,
Umptyscrunch
---------- Forwarded message ---------
No rush, it's all good my friend. It's a minimal working example.
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}
(replace the & for the escape char with any letter or letter sequence that won't occur in your emails)

Answer 2

Here's something I'm moderately happy with. Although I don't want to have to insert the newline \\ characters at the end of each line. I'd rather it be like the verbatim package which treats newlines in the input as line breaks in the output. Switching to courier font resolves problems with the > characters showing up as ? in the output.
\documentclass[12pt,stdletter,orderfromtodate,sigleft]{newlfm}
\renewenvironment{email}{\fontfamily{pcr}\selectfont\begin{footnotesize}}{\end{footnotesize}\par}
\renewcommand{\L}{\linelabel}
\usepackage{lineno}
\begin{document}
\section{Summary}
Refer to line \ref{label1}. And then he did it again on line \ref{label2}.
\newpage
\linenumbers
\section{Emails with no formatting}
\begin{email}
Email response number 2\\
\\
On Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 9:15 AM Anonymous wrote:\\
\\
> Hi Umptyscrunch,\\
>\\
> I'm letting you know that I did that thing.\\
>\\
> Thanks,\\
> Marklar\\
>
\\
Hi Marklar,
\\
\L{label1}Yeahhh. I'm going to need you to come in this Saturday. This line is so long it should wrap. I believe you have my stapler. \\
\\
Thanks,\\
Umptyscrunch
---------- Forwarded message ---------
No rush, it's all good my friend. \linelabel{label2}It's a minimal working example.
\end{email}
\end{document}