Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks after California's special election on Proposition 50, a measure that would temporarily redraw congressional districts, at the California Democratic Party Headquarters in Sacramento, California, on Nov. 4, 2025. (Reuters/Fred Greaves)
DOJ attorneys said the DCCC misled the court by claiming it lacked control over Mitchell’s records despite having a contractual right to his materials.
The DCCC therefore had an obligation to produce responsive records as part of the discovery process, the lawyers said. Meanwhile, Mitchell withheld documents, raised baseless privilege objections dozens of times in his deposition and belatedly produced only a fraction of his tens of thousands of files to the court, the DOJ lawyers said.
The court clash is part of a lawsuit the DOJ joined against Gov. Gavin Newsom and the DCCC. The lawsuit alleged that Proposition 50, which would allow the state to draw a more Democrat-friendly map in time for the 2026 midterms, involved unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.
The litigation is one of many redistricting disputes that have cropped up across the country ahead of next year's election. Proposition 50, which passed as a ballot measure in November, was a direct response to a mid-decade redistricting effort in Texas and designed to cancel out the five Republican gains there. The Supreme Court recently upheld Texas’ map in an emergency order after left-leaning groups alleged it was a race-based effort.
A Texas lawmaker displays a map during a Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting public testimony hearing on Aug. 7, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
In addition to Texas and California, Louisiana has a case pending before the Supreme Court that could affect its map by the next election, depending on when the high court rules on it. In Utah, Republicans were recently dealt a blow by a state judge who approved a new map that will tip one of the state's four districts in favor of Democrats.
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Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps toward redistricting.
The DOJ has asked a three-judge panel hearing the California case to determine that race was a major factor in the drawing of the map based on Mitchell's and the DCCC's actions. That finding would bolster the lawsuit’s broader claim, which the court is vetting during this week's three-day hearing, that Proposition 50 amounted to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering and must be blocked.
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-accuses-democratic-campaign-arm-obstruction-lawsuit-over-california-redistricting