AG says auditor can hire attorney to force audit of Legislature after SJC order

"Attorney General Andrea Campbell said Auditor Diana DiZoglio can hire an attorney to continue her fight to audit the Legislature after the state's highest court set a new deadline for the attorney general last week. The Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments last week to rule on whether DiZoglio can sue the Legislature for not complying with her voter-mandated audit. On Friday, justices set a 30-day deadline for the AG to "make a final determination as to the Auditor's request for representation.""

"Campbell said Tuesday that the audit can move forward after DiZoglio narrowed her scope to four areas, all related to Senate finances, according to the SJC order. "I have a letter that will come from my office to the auditor allowing her to proceed to appoint an attorney to then go into court with respect to those four things, and this will move forward," Campbell said, speaking on Boston Public Radio at the Boston Public Library after an audience question about the audit."

""We hope the AG will follow the court order without throwing up any additional procedural roadblocks to continue to stall this audit," DiZoglio said. "The AG has been required to make a decision on - verbatim - the same exact records requests we laid out to her back in January 2025, despite her claims otherwise.""

"In a statement, the auditor said attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who ran in the 2022 Democratic primary for attorney general and lost to Campbell, will represent the audit in court. "We are grateful to the Justices of the SJC, who - within just a matter of hours - were able to understand and decide on our s"

The state auditor can continue a voter-mandated audit of the Legislature after the Supreme Judicial Court set a 30-day deadline for the attorney general to decide on representation. The attorney general said the audit will move forward once the auditor appoints an attorney to pursue court action limited to four areas related to Senate finances. The auditor previously sought authority to sue the Legislature for noncompliance with the audit requirement approved by nearly 72% of voters. The auditor urged the attorney general to follow the court order without adding procedural delays. The auditor stated that attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan will represent the audit in court.

Read at Boston.com