Little Saigon’s YouTuber-turned-city councilmember Nam Quan Nguyen has been sued once again, this time for defamation.
In early June of 2025, attorneys for Christina Nguyen (aka Phuong Hang Nguyen, not related to Nam Quan) filed a petition with the Harris County Civil Court in Texas, seeking an injunction against several Vietnamese American YouTubers – including Westminster City Councilmember Nam Quan Nguyen – for their allegedly defamatory online behavior.
I guess getting sued by the City of Westminster wasn’t enough courtroom action for him.
The latest development in this case is that after a hearing on Sept. 30, the judge presiding over the case issued a temporary injunction requiring defendants (including Nam Quan Nguyen) to remove their videos that contained allegedly defamatory content about Christina Nguyen. The judge also stated in the temporary injunction that Christina “has demonstrated a probable right to relief and a likelihood of success on the merits of her defamation claims” against Nam Quan and his fellow YouTuber defendants. However, since Christina is a pretty public figure, Nam Quan and the other defendants are still allowed to keep making videos about her, so long as they’re not defamatory.
Let’s rewind with some quick background: Christina Nguyen (left) is a wealthy Vietnamese CEO most notorious for “exposing” the “corruption” of some Vietnamese celebrities, business moguls, and politicians via her online livestreams, which gained popularity during a national anti-corruption campaign in Vietnam in 2021. Similarly to Donald Trump, her personal brand appears to be built on positioning herself as an “outsider” whose riches give her unique insights into the lives of influential people (the legal complaint filed on June 2 paints her as “courageous” for her “exposé” of the former Vietnamese Minister of Health). She got thrown in jail for a few years for “slander,” but I guess she’s back and ready to rumble.
Christina Nguyen’s wealth, imprisonment, and departure from Vietnam have been used by pro-capitalist writers as an example of how the Vietnamese government is “bad” for business or “crack[s] down on political dissidents.” Yet, it would appear based on court filings that her interpersonal issues have allegedly made her an enemy of Nam Quan Nguyen and his right-wing Vietnamese American YouTuber friends.
I’m not exactly sympathetic to a super rich person like Christina Nguyen – and it’s not lost on me that she’s been convicted of engaging in slander, yet is out here suing other people for very similar behavior – but it also isn’t surprising that Nam Quan Nguyen’s comments on his livestream have gotten him into legal trouble. After all, this is the same guy who spent several minutes “transvestigating” the French prime minister’s wife and who made a video dedicated to talking about Westminster City Councilmember Mark Nguyen being Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen’s brother-in-law (although I’m unsure if that’s true).
Christina Nguyen’s legal complaint against Nam Quan Nguyen and other YouTubers alleges that since September 2024, Nam Quan Nguyen and the five other defendants have regularly defamed or encouraged others to defame Christina on their livestreams. Christina’s lawyers were able to file the lawsuit in Texas because Nam Quan’s (and other defendants’) YouTube channels apparently reach a lot of viewers there. The part of the complaint that focuses on Nam Quan reads:
“On May 29, 2025, Nam Quan Nguyen and his partner, Nguyen Tien Dung, invited Addison Nguyen – a Canadian citizen and former hairdresser with no legal training or license to practice law in Texas, the United States, Canada, or anywhere – who proceeded to engage in the unauthorized practice of Texas law during the broadcast. During the same livestream, Nam Quan Nguyen and Nguyen Tien Dung encouraged a viewer, Mr. David Nguyen, to make slanderous statements per se against [Christina Nguyen], including the false and reckless accusation that her decision to retain legal counsel – who teams up with counsel for a plaintiff in a separate defamation matter in a different court – constituted a criminal act that should be reported to the District Attorney’s Office. [… in] addition, Addison Nguyen defamed Plaintiff’s counsel by falsely alleging that [Christina] had conspired with counsel for Gerard Williams to initiate legal action against YouTubers who are friends and supporters of Đàm Vĩnh Hưng.”
Apparently there’s also an ongoing, tangentially-related case involving Gerard Williams that Nam Quan and others are trying to tie to Christina Nguyen somehow (which, by the way, Nam Quan invited our friend Joe DoVinh on his show to talk about). A few lines down, the complaint continues:
“[…] during the May 29, 2025 livestream, Nguyen Tien Dung and Nam Quan Nguyen further encouraged Addison Nguyen to instruct other Defendant YouTubers to fraudulently transfer their assets purportedly to make themselves appear ‘homeless’ – in a calculated effort to evade enforcement of future civil judgments, all while continuing their defamatory attacks against Plaintiff with apparent impunity. Such conduct may rise to the level of criminal offense under Texas law. For Nam Quan Nguyen, an elected city councilman, participation in and endorsement of such unlawful and unethical conduct is especially reprehensible and deserving of public condemnation.”
So, according to this complaint, Nam Quan Nguyen was allegedly encouraging a guest on his show that was telling the other defendant YouTubers to move their money around to deceive the authorities regarding this legal situation?! What the complaint alleges is pretty clear in the livestream video: about 45 minutes into his May 29, 2025 livestream, Nam Quan’s guest (not a lawyer) claimed that he would “show you a move” to legally deal with Christina Nguyen. Nam Quan’s guest proceeded to say that he would first explain the “legal” “move” for people who could make themselves seem “homeless,” then would later explain the “move” for people with assets. Nam Quan wasn’t necessarily expressly advocating for this non-lawyer to keep giving his unqualified advice, but he was laughing at the guest’s jokes, didn’t do anything to intervene, and seemed to be intently listening to this guy’s suggestions.
The June 2 legal complaint also alleges that Nam Quan, along with the five other defendants, orchestrated a defamatory petition that sought to prevent Christina and her family from obtaining U.S. visas, in part based on her “anti-American” rhetoric. There seem to be several circulating with similar language, but here’s the one clearly authored by defendant Nguyen Tien Dung (“Daniel Tran”), who often appears alongside Nam Quan on his shows.
In the online petition, Nam Quan’s co-host argues that Christina should be denied a U.S. visa because of her “Anti-American statements” (she said the United States is a discriminatory place), her criminal convictions (related to her “exposé” of celebrities and politicians), and her “affiliation with communist entities” given that her husband is a former Vietnamese legislator (all Vietnamese officials must be affiliated with the Vietnamese Communist Party since it’s a one-party government). Nam Quan’s co-host also claims Christina has harassed and intimidated Vietnamese Americans, but doesn’t really elaborate on the details in the petition.
I’m not saying I think Christina Nguyen is totally innocent (and she’s still ultra-rich), but the petition by Nam Quan’s YouTube co-host just doesn’t make much clear other than that Nam Quan and his right-wing Vietnamese YouTuber friends don’t like this woman and are using their usual laundry list of insults (“she’s a communist!”) to discredit her. It’s also really disturbing how many dozens of videos Nam Quan and his co-host have made about Christina, many of which use really unflattering images of her in ways that feel pretty gross and sexist. For instance, in the aforementioned May 29, 2025 livestream, Nam Quan and his co-host superimposed an image of Christina laying down over the screen that I can assume was meant to portray her as sleazy and overly promiscuous:
Funnily enough, the law firm representing Christina Nguyen is Brito PLLC, which also represents Nam Quan Nguyen’s beloved President Donald Trump (defamation case against ABC) and First Lady Melania Trump (threatened defamation lawsuit against Hunter Biden).
To be clear, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t claim that I’m expertly explaining the case details, but I wanted to at least share the initial complaint and latest development in the case. After all, it seems pretty important that Nam Quan Nguyen, a local elected official, is getting hit with another (apparently likely to succeed) lawsuit, this time regarding defamation. I would think we’d all want our elected officials to speak truthfully and with integrity, even if they sometimes voice their opinions in exaggerated or rowdy ways.
I’m not even sure I can call this a bad situation for Nam Quan because he’s gotten to make even more videos and get more views out of this whole legal battle (like this one, where he’s discussing case updates by the court house).
The actual jury trial date is set for December 1. If you want to read more of the files from the case, you can find unofficial digital copies on the Harris County Clerk’s website (Case #1252295).
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