Scoop: DiZoglio will limit audit suit scope — but says it's just the opening move
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images
Deehan here with Spill of the Hill, my column unraveling Massachusetts politics.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio will agree to narrow the categories of documents she'll investigate in her pursuit of the legal authority to audit the legislative branch, she tells Axios.
Why it matters: It's a concession from DiZoglio that allows her suit against legislative leaders to proceed.
- The auditor has been waging a legal war against the Legislature and Attorney General's office over the voter-backed law letting her look into lawmakers' books.
Yes, but: DiZoglio tells Axios accepting the narrower categories of documents now doesn't mean she'll stop there in future investigations.
- And she'll only accept the terms once her chosen attorney is officially appointed to represent her.
What they're saying: "This case doesn't limit our audit but rather initiates it," DiZoglio told Axios Sunday.
State of play: DiZoglio tells Axios she will refile her complaint and limit her initial request for documents to just four categories: chamber budgets, official audits, balance-forward transaction records and employee settlement agreements, all for fiscal years 2021–2024.
- DiZoglio says her office will proceed only when Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney she's chosen to represent her in lieu of counsel from the attorney general, is formally appointed to the role by the AG's office.
Catch up quick: DiZoglio faced a deadline Monday to either narrow her lawsuit seeking to audit the Legislature, or watch the standoff grind to another halt.
The big picture: The Supreme Judicial Court wants to settle whether the Legislature is legally subject to the auditor's oversight, but the clash between Attorney General Andrea Campbell and DiZoglio has slowed things down.
- During oral arguments, Justice Scott Kafker said the parties were "battling each other to exhaustion" while the public interest went unresolved.
State of play: Campbell authorized DiZoglio last week to retain labor attorney Liss-Riordan as outside counsel and abandoned her prior role of officially defending the General Court.
Campbell's authorization carries strict conditions. DiZoglio must:
- Dismiss her February lawsuit against House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka.
- Refile the complaint confined to just the four select categories of documents.
Between the lines: DiZoglio has pushed back on any suggestion that accepting the narrowed scope undermines her office's broader authority to pursue more documents from the Legislature.
- She insists the four-category limit applies only to this litigation.
What we're watching: Campbell has reserved the right to file her own separate briefs if Liss-Riordan's arguments conflict with the AG's established legal positions.
- The arrangement that allowed Liss-Riordan's appointment means the AG could file opposing briefs.
- That would cause a further constitutional mess where two executive-branch lawyers stand on opposite sides of the same case.
What's next: When DiZoglio accepts the terms, Liss-Riordan will file a new complaint naming Mariano, Spilka and both chambers' clerks, while agreeing to the limited scope of documents.
- A court could then finally rule on whether legislative leaders are bound by the 2024 law and allow DiZoglio to look into some, but not yet all, of the General Court's affairs.