State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s use of taxpayer resources to threaten the Boston Herald over the fact that she admitted conflicts with her impartiality in auditing the Legislature is being called a blatant attempt to stomp on the paper’s First Amendment freedoms.

Herald lawyers state the auditor’s letter “threatening legal action … appears to be a not-so-subtle attempt to chill the Herald’s fair and accurate reporting on a public official’s statements because the State Auditor finds it unflattering to her personally.”

DiZoglio’s objection stemmed from Herald reporting on an “Annual Independence Certification Form” where she checked off that, “threats exist that would compromise at the following audit entities.”

As the Herald reported, DiZoglio writes she would have conflicts of interest and listed the “Advisory Council on Private Occupational Schools, Comptroller’s Advisory Board, Inspector General Council, Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Systems Board, Municipal Finance Oversight Board, Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission, Witness Protection Board, and Tax Expenditures Commission.”

She also admits to “Bias Threats” from the “Office of Campaign and Political Finance.” OCPF is the state’s top independent watchdog for all political donations.

She adds she would “take steps necessary” to “prevent” any conflicts of interest, including delegating some of the audit responsibilities.

The forms also list the state Legislature where threats exist to her ability to audit the House and Senate. She regularly clashed with Democratic leadership when she was a representative and senator, and has since publicly knocked lawmakers as she pursues audits of the two chambers.

The State Auditor’s Office requires any employee who can influence the performance of an audit or the preparation of related reports to complete an annual form that calls on the person to identify if any “threats exist that would compromise independence.”

DiZoglio first signed the form in early February 2023, or about one month after taking office following a campaign that featured pledges to audit the House and Senate. But the Methuen Democrat did not initially list the Legislature as an entity where she could encounter biases. She now does.

The audit issue gained steam after voters approved a ballot question in November that explicitly granted the State Auditor’s Office the ability to audit the Legislature — a vote that the Democratic leadership on Beacon Hill is fighting.

The auditor’s attack on the Herald’s continuing coverage of the political mud fight now has DiZoglio using “public resources, and on the Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s official letterhead” to demand a retraction.

“Auditor DiZoglio, who is the state’s ‘chief accountability officer’ and therefore subject to strict ethical standards, appears to have violated her ethical obligations under both the (1) Generally Acceptable Government Auditing Standards (‘GAGAS’), also known as the ‘Yellow Book,’ … and (2) the Massachusetts Conflict of Interest Law,” attorney Jeffrey Robbins for the Herald writes, adding her objections are “wholly baseless.”

Deputy Auditor Michael Leung-Tat, who wrote the incendiary letter to the Herald, said his office “never threatened legal action but rather ‘requests’ … a retraction of the false statements.”

As for using taxpayer resources, he adds: “Setting the record straight in defense of the Office of the State Auditor’s official business is very much a part of my duties as General Counsel and does not violate the law in any way. As indicated in our letter, a retraction is warranted because the inaccurate conflation of official documents (audit independence forms) with an admission of ‘conflicts of interest’ negatively impacts our efforts to conduct our work, including our current audit of the Legislature.”

Robbins, in his letter to Leung-Tat, adds “not only is Auditor DiZoglio attempting to chill the Herald’s First Amendment rights by enlisting you to threaten a baseless private defamation claim on her behalf, she is inappropriately using the prestige of her office to pressure the Herald to withdraw clearly accurate statements based on her own certifications.”

DiZoglio remains locked in a battle with lawmakers over the audit, with accusations that her opening the books could be weaponized. Yet, 72% of Massachusetts voters backed Question 1 in the fall, calling for an audit of the state Legislature.

As Robbins stated, it is the Herald’s First Amendment duty under the “Fair Report Privilege” to cover “precisely the type of official statements” DiZoglio makes on any official form and whatever else transpires on Beacon Hill as the tug-of-war over an audit continues to be waged.