Sam Drysdale
State House News Service

As Auditor Diana DiZoglio sues legislative leaders to comply with a voter-approved audit law, her office is also seeking approval to bring on a trio of veteran litigators funded by a Republican gubernatorial candidate to carry the case.

In a Jan. 26 letter to the Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office, Deputy Auditor and General Counsel Michael Leung-Tat asked that George Vien, Nicholas Ramacher and Pietro Conte of the Boston firm Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar, LLP be appointed as special assistant attorneys general (SAAG) to represent the auditor's office in its dispute with the Legislature. Republican candidate for governor Mike Minogue, who last month gave the Republican State Committee $100,000, offered to sponsor their services.

The request for court authorization for SAAG appointments is pending before a SJC Judge Frank Gaziano as part of DiZoglio's broader petition that the court has docketed as a "separation of powers" case.

The January request caps months of back-and-forth between the auditor's office and Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office over whether the AG had enough information to authorize litigation — and, if not, whether outside counsel could be appointed to bring the case instead. The letters were obtained by the News Service.

The dispute traces back at least to Aug. 4, 2025, when First Assistant Attorney General M. Patrick Moore Jr. told Leung-Tat that the AGO had "concerns with representing OSA in the proposed litigation."

"We cannot initiate litigation or undertake representation of the OSA when the OSA's position on this central issue is in flux," Moore wrote, pointing to disagreements over legislative privilege and the scope of the audit.

Still, Moore left open the possibility of appointing outside counsel.

"These concerns do not necessarily preclude the appointment of a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG) to pursue your proposed litigation," he wrote. But he cautioned that any such appointment "would be expressly limited to a particular cause of action against specifically identified defendants."

To evaluate a SAAG request, Moore asked for "a precise description of the full scope of the proposed audit," the documents sought, the auditor's position on auditing "core legislative functions," the intended causes of action, and a commitment to abide by limits set by the AGO.

More than two months later, DiZoglio wrote directly to Campbell on Oct. 15, 2025, arguing that her office had already answered those questions and that the legal dispute was straightforward.

"We have presented your office with a legal issue that is not only ripe for litigation, but for which litigation is the only means of resolution given the General Court's refusal to comply with our audit," DiZoglio wrote.

"The legal issue is the General Court's refusal to comply with our request for records that are related to the scope of our audit. We are seeking to litigate this discrete issue, not any hypothetical questions that may or may not present themselves in the future," she said.

Frustrated by the stalemate, she challenged the AG's office to act.

"So, sue me, sue the General Court, or immediately authorize our office to move forward with litigation without you," DiZoglio wrote. "To do anything less is obstruction of justice on the part of the Attorney General's Office."

The AGO responded on Oct. 30, reiterating that key details were still missing and tying that to the SAAG question.

"The AGO will not authorize the filing of a lawsuit, or the appointment of a SAAG to handle that lawsuit, without a concise and specific description of the intended claims," Moore wrote.

He added that lawsuits between branches of state government are "exceptionally rare."

Then came a blunt conclusion: "Until you provide the information routinely provided by agencies, including the OSA, seeking authority to file suit, no legal dispute is ripe and no SAAG will be appointed."

Moore's Oct. 30 letter also raised concerns about the proposed funding arrangement for outside counsel, describing "significant concerns and unanswered questions relating to OSA's proposal that a private individual be permitted to fund a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG) to represent the OSA in proposed, but unspecified, affirmative litigation against the Legislature." The arrangement, he wrote, "gives rise to serious concerns under the state ethics law."

By Jan. 26, Leung-Tat responded with a formal SAAG request that pressed for approval of the Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar attorneys.

"The AGO itself has declined to initiate litigation on the OSA's behalf," Leung-Tat wrote. He said that in August the AGO "proposed the idea of appointing a SAAG to pursue such litigation."

"We need this appointment only due to the AGO's failure to enforce the law itself and to represent our office and the people of Massachusetts," Leung-Tat wrote.

Addressing the funding plan, he cited written guidance that the State Ethics Commission gave Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar, saying state regulation "allow[s] the attorneys who are appointed by the AGO as a SAAG to be paid by Mr. Minogue as long as they comply with the provisions of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct."

"Accordingly, we seek the formal appointment of George W. Vien, Nicholas J. Ramacher, and Pietro A. Conte as SAAGs to represent the OSA in litigation against the General Court—at no expense to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth," he wrote, asking for a resolution by Jan. 30.

Two weeks later, on Feb. 10, DiZoglio filed a lawsuit with a single justice in the Supreme Judicial Court seeking authorization to hire outside counsel and broadly demanding that House and Senate leaders turn over records.

Minogue, a former medical device executive now in a three-way Republican primary for governor, has publicly embraced the audit fight.

In a radio clip posted to his campaign Facebook page on Jan. 21, Minogue said, "I want the #1 issue you think about to be the audit, whether you're an independent or Democrat or Republican, we voted for it. I voted for it. You voted for it. 72% of our state voted for the audit and it's law and they're not doing it. And they're supposed to ignore us."

On Tuesday night, reposting a video of DiZoglio's press conference, Minogue wrote on social media: "First Day as Governor- start the audit of legislature and entire $63B budget, along with the $120B in debt terms. WE will have accountability and identify waste, fraud and excess. It is the taxpayer money!"

DiZoglio has said her office has not accepted outside funds and is seeking judicial approval to ensure any arrangement complies with ethics rules.

Campbell, in a statement in response to the lawsuit, has argued the auditor is attempting to bypass required approval.

"The Auditor does not have the authority to file this lawsuit. This is another ploy to sidestep the required approval of my office and will bring her no closer to auditing the Legislature," she said. "In order to enforce the law, she would answer my office's straightforward questions, including how privileges given to the Legislature in our state constitution nearly 250 years ago impact her authority to audit the Legislature."

Campbell added, "I stand ready to enforce Question 1 as well, but I cannot do that if the Auditor continues to not answer our questions," and rejected suggestions that her office is reluctant to defend ballot initiatives, citing litigation over the 2020 Right to Repair and cage-free animals laws.

The lawyers DiZoglio seeks to appoint bring a mix of prosecutorial, appellate and complex civil experience.

Vien was an assistant U.S. attorney in Massachusetts for more than 20 years, served in the Health Care Fraud Unit, Public Corruption Unit and Organized Crime Strike Force, and has tried more than 40 federal criminal cases. Now a white-collar defense attorney, he has handled SEC and Department of Justice investigations involving public corruption, fraud and campaign finance.

Ramacher is a commercial litigator and former First Circuit clerk. Conte, an associate at the firm, previously clerked at the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court.

With DiZoglio's petition now pending before a single justice, the court will determine whether the SAAG appointments move forward the underlying fight over the scope of the Legislature's audit.