The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will be asked to consider a resolution calling on federal prosecutors to review the plea deal for former Supervisor Andrew Do, who pleaded guilty to bribery and is awaiting sentencing.
Supervisor Janet Nguyen told her fellow board members in a letter that “there is strong concern that, as an elected official, Andrew Do received special treatment from the federal prosecutors, resulting in a single criminal charge that does not fully reflect the severity and extent of Do’s corrupt behavior.
“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. Additionally, the lack of further prosecutions against other individuals implicated in this scheme raises concerns about incomplete justice and the perception of unequal accountability.”
Chapman University Law School professor Lawrence Rosenthal, a former federal prosecutor, told City News Service that “under the plea agreement the United States attorney is bound to agree unless (Do) breached it… The likelihood for a move to withdraw from the plea agreement seems extremely low.”
Rosenthal added, “I certainly have to say it is an extremely lenient plea agreement for Mr. Do, especially because, the most unusual part about it is it’s a package deal (that includes his daughter).”
Rosenthal said Nguyen has “ample reason to be concerned about it… I do not fault Ms. Nguyen for being concerned about this agreement, but the likelihood it can be undone at this late date is very low.”
UC Irvine Law School professor Tony Smith agreed that there’s little chance of overturning the plea agreement.
“My take on this is it’s just performative politics,” Smith told City News Service.
Smith added that the resolution was “not in (Nguyen’s) wheelhouse of authority and it is not why anyone votes for her.”
Smith said it is not unusual for politicians to get lighter sentences “because they always get credit for their service to the people. So even when they do very bad things judges and prosecutors still say, well, they’re still a politician, so somehow or another we should take it easy on them.”
The resolution is “just a way to get attention and somehow do a moral superiority dance, but there’s no substance to this,” Smith said.
Do pleaded guilty to a felony federal bribery conspiracy charge on Oct. 31. His attorney worked out a deal that puts a 5-year lid on Do’s time behind bars. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 9.
Do admitted in his plea agreement that in exchange for more than $550,000 in bribes, he cast votes starting in 2020 that directed more than $10 million in COVID-relief funds to the Viet America Society, where his daughter Rhiannon worked, according to federal prosecutors.
While agreeing to plead guilty to the federal bribery conspiracy charge, Andrew Do also reached a separate but related plea agreement with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, under which he resigned as a county supervisor and will forfeit any pension credit he amassed during the time he was engaged in the bribery scheme since 2020, Spitzer said at the news conference.
Rhiannon Do, a third-year UC Irvine law school student, who was also caught up in the investigation, has agreed to fully cooperate with authorities and will be allowed to enter a diversion program.