Don Jr. could face criminal prosecution after Trump Org testimony: ex-prosecutor

Donald Trump Jr. took the stand at the Trumps' civil fraud trial in New York on Wednesday, where, among other things, he denied knowing anything about the widespread accounting fraud that inflated the Trump Organization's property evaluations, saying, "That's what CPAs are for."

But giving that information was a big gamble for him.

In fact, argued former federal prosecutor Elie Honig on CNN, Trump Jr. is taking the chance of moving this case from a civil to a criminal matter.

"Is Donald Trump Jr. taking a risk by testifying and not taking the Fifth Amendment?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.

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"The attorney general's core allegation here is that Donald Trump Jr. and some of his family members intentionally and knowingly overinflated the value of their assets, and what I think is really crucial to note about the testimony that Donald Trump Jr. just gave hours ago is he did not try to argue that these valuations were actually accurate, that they were legitimate," said Honig. "Instead ... he tried to argue, I didn't really know about them, I wasn't part of this. He tried to distance himself from the actual valuations."

Ultimately, Honig agreed with Blitzer, saying, "there certainly is a risk with taking the stand here."

"Donald Trump Jr. would have had the option of taking the Fifth Amendment," said Honig. "This is a civil case, but he still could say, I refuse to testify because my testimony could be used against me. He's decided not to do that, and so now as a result, everything that he's testifying to is fair game for prosecutors to consider. Prosecutors have looked at this case. They have chosen not to charge it as a criminal case thus far, but that could change based on Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony, so there's an inherent risk in taking the stand here."

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