Massachusetts's endorsed Republican candidate for governor — a U.S. Army combat veteran, a former medical-device-company CEO, and the man who took the late-April Worcester convention with 70 percent of the delegate vote — posted the pledge on his official campaign X account: as governor, he would audit the entire state budget, top to bottom. And he would put the executive branch behind the audit of the legislature Massachusetts voters already approved.

In November 2024, Massachusetts voters approved Question 1 by 71.4 percent. The measure handed DiZoglio's office the authority to audit the Massachusetts General Court — the state legislature itself.

On Wednesday, May 6, the Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on whether DiZoglio could pursue the lawsuit without the attorney general's office. The next day, the court gave Campbell 30 days to decide whether she'd represent DiZoglio. By Tuesday, May 12, Campbell had folded — the audit could proceed, narrowed to four areas of Senate finances. The day after that, the AG cleared DiZoglio to retain outside counsel: Shannon Liss-Riordan, the same attorney who ran against Campbell in the 2022 Democratic primary for attorney general.

In the summer of 2025 — months before he launched his gubernatorial campaign — Minogue, then a private citizen and frequent Republican donor, reached out to DiZoglio's office and offered to pay for outside counsel out of his own pocket. He found a law firm. He vetted them. DiZoglio's office ran it past the State Ethics Commission, which had no objection.

DiZoglio eventually declined, saying the arrangement had turned into "a distraction" once Minogue's own campaign got rolling. The lawsuit went on with her general counsel.