---
type: "Bill"
title: "Threatening a witness: assisting a prosecution."
description: "Existing law makes it a crime to knowingly and maliciously prevent or dissuade, or attempt to prevent or dissuade, a witness or victim from causing a complaint, indictment, information, or probation or parole violation to be sought and prosecuted, and assisting in the prosecution thereof."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20252026"
identifier: "AB 535"
citation: "California AB 535 (20252026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Threateningawitness", "assistingaprosecution"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Schiavo"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 20
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2025-02-11"
last_action: "2025-10-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a16fb898-9513-47dc-b34c-c30dbfb31338"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB535"
source_hash: "499be4c87ac1acd70e27130ae886ce5588b1110d96375977f2884d6f473d55d3"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 535 (20252026) — Threatening a witness: assisting a prosecution.

Existing law makes it a crime to knowingly and maliciously prevent or dissuade, or attempt to prevent or dissuade, a witness or victim from causing a complaint, indictment, information, or probation or parole violation to be sought and prosecuted, and assisting in the prosecution thereof.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/11/25 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB535&version=20250AB53599INT)
2. **10/06/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB535&version=20250AB53597CHP)
3. **AB535** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB535)
4. **09/10/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB535&version=20250AB53598ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 535 Schiavo Assembly Third Reading — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB535 Schiavo et al. By Cervantes — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Schiavo — primary (person)
- Schultz — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-02-11** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2025-02-12** From printer. May be heard in committee March 14.
- **2025-02-24** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-26** Coauthors revised.
- **2025-03-26** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-04-09** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2025-05-23** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (May 23). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-05-27** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 1835.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-06-03** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2025-06-11** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2025-06-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 24). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-07-07** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2025-08-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 29). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-08-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-09-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2613.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-09-08** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2025-09-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2025-10-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2025-10-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 373, Statutes of 2025. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a16fb898-9513-47dc-b34c-c30dbfb31338`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).