DiZoglio takes her battle to audit the Legislature to the state's high court

Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio filed a lawsuit Tuesday with the state’s high court to force the Legislature to hand over financial documents as part of an audit into lawmakers' businesses.

Voters handed DiZoglio the power to audit the Legislature in 2024. But Democrats who lead the House and Senate have refused to cooperate with her probe, arguing that any investigation into the body's inner workings violates separation-of-powers principles in the state constitution.

DiZoglio says she's trying to carry out what voters supported in a ballot question with 72% of the vote.

“The Legislature is violating the law, undermining democracy, and refusing to show us even one taxpayer-funded financial receipt regarding their expenditures,” DiZolgio told reporters Tuesday at the State House. “There is no defense for what is happening right now.”

The lawsuit asks a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to order House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the clerks of both legislative branches to turn over budgets, past financial audits, monetary transactions and settlement agreements.

The legal challenge also calls for the court to appoint a special assistant attorney general to the Office of the State Auditor to oversee further legal action.

DiZoglio has repeatedly sought approval from Attorney General Andrea Campbell to take the House and Senate to court or to appoint an independent special assistant attorney general.

But Campbell has not greenlit legal action or appointed a special prosecutor, arguing that DiZoglio has not provided enough information about the scope of her audit and the exact legal arguments she plans to use in a lawsuit.

“She needs to stop gaslighting us. She needs to stop spreading falsehoods about our office and accusing my office staff of not giving her the information that she has requested,” DiZoglio said of Campbell.

A spokesperson for Mariano declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat who chaired a legislative committee last year to review the ballot question, said DiZoglio has declined to testify before lawmakers and provided “vague” information about her audit.

Friedman said state lawmakers have an “obligation” to uphold separation-of-powers principles laid out in the state constitution.

“At a time when constitutional norms are being challenged nationally, we cannot allow them to be undermined here in Massachusetts,” Friedman said in a statement.