OC supervisors battle over Andrew Do plea deal and whether to call for tougher prison sentence

Orange County supervisors erupted into a heated debate Tuesday about whether to call for federal prosecutors to revisit a plea deal with Andrew Do, a former O.C. supervisor who faces up to five years in prison for a scheme to steal millions meant to feed vulnerable residents.

The two-hour discussion at the board meeting in Santa Ana was prompted by a motion drafted by Supervisors Janet Nguyen and Doug Chaffee on whether the board should call on the Justice Department to reexamine the deal. They contend in the proposal that the plea deal shows “special treatment” compared with other major corruption cases and doesn’t reflect “the severity and extent of [Andrew] Do’s corrupt behavior.”

Nguyen said constituents have been coming up to her asking “why this case is being treated with such leniency.”

“They're asking, how can someone steal over $10 million in COVID relief, accepting over 700,000 [dollars] in bribes — and only facing…up to five years in prison,” she continued.

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen speaks at a meeting on April 8, 2025.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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“If he were to serve, let's say, five years — that's $2 million per year. Most Americans would never make 2 million a year in their lifetime. So it shows that, in this crime, it pays. It pays big time,” she added. “We cannot look the other way when serious crimes are met with soft consequences.”

Supervisor Katrina Foley threw her support behind the move after calling for prosecutors to evaluate whether Do breached the October plea deal. She pointed to an apparent email breach after Do pleaded guilty and resigned, in which for four months Do kept receiving confidential emails from the county’s attorney to board members before his attorney alerted the county. That’s because Do’s personal email had previously been added to the distribution list for where emails to the board get forwarded.

Foley has said she’s concerned that Do may have seen confidential emails about strategy in the criminal and civil cases about the scheme, while Do’s attorney says the ex-supervisor didn’t notice the emails until February.

“ I feel that the Department of Justice should reconsider and reassess the plea agreement, because he continued to act in an unethical, criminal-minded manner — even after signing the plea agreement. And there is language in the plea agreement that prohibits that,” Foley said, adding that Do was a lawyer. “As  a lawyer, we have a duty when we receive confidential communications that are attorney-client privileged from the other side. We have a duty to call the other side and say, ‘Hey, I got confidential information. I'm destroying it. I'm sending it back to you.’”

But supervisors Don Wagner and Vicente Sarmiento said it wouldn’t be appropriate for the supervisors to interfere with prosecutors’ work.

 “That, to me, shows a profound disrespect for the prosecutors and law enforcement at the state and county level who've worked so hard on this case, know it better than we do, and have said this is the deal appropriate under the circumstances,” Wagner said.

After hearing opposition from two of his colleagues, Chaffee backtracked on his support for the motion he and Nguyen had introduced, saying he wants the board to be unanimous.

The board ultimately decided to postpone a decision to their next meeting.

There was stronger support, however, for sending a written brief to the court before Do is sentenced, potentially recommending he get the maximum five-year prison sentence, or close to it. The board directed the county’s lawyers to draft a brief and bring it back for review at their next meeting.

Then-O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do at the county Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 23, 2024.

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Nick Gerda

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Do’s criminal defense attorney, Paul Meyer, told LAist after the board debate: “Politically-motivated attempts to influence the justice system are reprehensible.”

“Members who seek to use undue political influence tarnish the integrity of the Board of Supervisors,” he added.

As for the email breach, Meyer referred to an Orange County Register article that quotes Do’s civil defense attorney, Eliot Krieger, as saying Do had no control over who the county’s attorney sent the emails to.

“It wasn’t anything Andrew did. … I don’t think he was paying any attention to [the emails],” Krieger told the Register.

The board’s debate came after more than a dozen residents — mostly Vietnamese-Americans — spoke during public comment in support of a tougher sentence.

Do and his associates and family members “have received a lot of money from this — from our public funds. And no one should be above the law,” said Phat Bui.

“He should not be given any lenience, and should be held fully to the laws,” he added.

Bui is a former Garden Grove councilman who ran against Do for county supervisor in 2016, and filed the complaint that led to a 2022 state ethics fine against Do.

That fine centered on Do’s failure to follow laws requiring him to disclose his role soliciting donations for a statue project in 2015 and 2016. That statues project is the first known link between Do and Peter Anh Pham, who years later founded the nonprofit at the center of the Do corruption case — Viet America Society.

Members of the Vietnamese American community in Orange County give public comment at the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on April 8, 2025.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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Do was a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2015 to October 2024, when he resigned and pleaded guilty to a felony bribery conspiracy charge.

The plea deal was the result of a federal probe inspired by a months-long LAist investigation into millions in taxpayer dollars that he directed to a nonprofit where his daughter, Rhiannon Do, held top roles. He’s scheduled to be sentenced June 9.

“His plea agreement, which significantly limits his sentencing, stands in stark contrast to harsher penalties imposed on others who committed similar crimes involving public funds and bribery,” Nguyen and Chaffee wrote in their proposal for the board.

Among the examples they pointed to is a 16-year sentence for former Lynwood Mayor Paul Richards for steering city contracts to a company he controlled.

Their proposal also calls on the Justice Department to speed up its investigation of other people allegedly involved in schemes connected to Andrew Do.

“The lack of further prosecutions against other individuals implicated in this scheme raises concerns about incomplete justice and the perception of unequal accountability,” Nguyen and Chaffee wrote in their proposal. “Andrew Do's abuse of his public office to personally profit from emergency relief funds directly harmed those vulnerable communities who were depending on these critical resources for their survival during the pandemic.”

The federal judge overseeing Andrew Do’s sentencing in Orange County, James Selna, has said he is not beholden to the plea agreement and will make up his own mind about the former supervisor’s punishment.