By Katie Castellani
Auditor Diana DiZoglio is once again asking for the court’s permission to hire her own legal representation. This time, it’s to secure defense to dispute the attorney general’s motion to quash DiZoglio’s lawsuit against legislative leaders.
On Feb. 19, Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office filed a motion to strike DiZoglio’s lawsuit that seeks to compel lawmakers to comply with a 2024 voter law authorizing her office to audit the Legislature and to allow for a special assistant attorney general to represent her office. Campbell was granted permission to intervene in DiZoglio’s lawsuit as a defendant alongside House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the House and Senate clerks. The AG’s office also lodged the House and Senate’s official responses to DiZoglio’s court filing.
In a motion filed Wednesday, DiZoglio argues that because Campbell took a side in the auditor’s case against legislative leaders, the court “can and should order that a SAAG be appointed to represent the state auditor and public interest on this matter.” The auditor’s motion asks for more time to respond to Campbell’s move to strike the lawsuit so a special attorney general can be appointed to respond on her behalf to the attorney general and legislative leaders’ motion.
“Attorney General Campbell has abdicated her duty to defend the public interest,” said DiZoglio. “Democracy is under attack and the people deserve an answer from the courts. AG Campbell claims I am a ‘dissenting state official’ and that she is the ‘gatekeeper’ to the courts, but those gates were never meant to be locked to the people. Gatekeeping justice isn’t leadership. It’s obstruction. The courts belong to the people, not the politicians, so yes—I dissent.”
DiZoglio filed the lawsuit with the state’s high court earlier this month. Top lawmakers have continued to cite constitutional concerns in their opposition to an audit and Campbell has said her office has not received enough information from the auditor to decide whether to bring a suit against legislative leaders.
Campbell argued in her motion that her office is a legal “gatekeeper,” charged with deciding when disputes between branches of government require court intervention. Campbell’s office did not immediately respond to the News Service’s request for comment on DiZoglio’s latest motion.
WHAV staff contributed to this report.