Legal experts: NY AG “set up” Don Jr. on witness stand — and now he could be criminally prosecuted
Legal experts: NY AG “set up” Don Jr. on witness stand — and now he could be criminally prosecuted

Legal experts: NY AG “set up” Don Jr. on witness stand — and now he could be criminally prosecuted

That's not how that works lol. You are called to testify, you are legally required to do it or face jail. You answer questions truthfully. It's not a set up, it's what happens to ANYONE who committed, helped commit, witnessed, or otherwise, a crime.
The “set up” was to ask incriminating questions to someone too dumb to plead the 5th.
My understanding is they can't plead the 5th. Well they can but the judge can assume the worst if they do use it.
Apparently because it's civil not criminal it works different.
Same thing happened with Mueller and all the claims of a "perjury trap." It isn't a trap when the prosecutor asks someone under oath if they committed a crime related to the current trial. It's literally upholding the law.
If the only options a defendant has, are to say they committed a crime under oath, or lie, then they did commit a crime.
"Perjury trap" was definitely one of the more ridiculous things they came up with. It's easy to not be caught in such a thing by not lying.
They still have the option to remain silent. Though this can lead to an adverse inference being drawn. Another option is like what Bill Cosby did and try to work with the prosecutor to secure some measure of immunity from criminal proceedings that could stem from your testimony in a civil trial. Personally I don't think Cosby should have been granted any of that and just forced to face the fucking music, but rapists gonna rape I guess.
I think they put it in quotes because it isn’t truly a setup, but I agree that it’s still a horrible choice of words.
He can’t plead the fifth without risking civil damages and can’t testify truthfully without risking incrimination
I think they mean set up like when you set up a golf ball for a tee or when you set up a nice free kick
More like when you set up decorations for a party.
I don't know anything about the legal details - besides what I've read on the internet, aka RESEARCH - but I unfortunately watched the clip of Junior getting interviewed about his knowledge of GAAP and, in my opinion, the prosecutor laughed and played along with his "jokes" and he of course loved the positive attention and let his guard down. To some degree that seemed like a pretty good "set-up", but just like everything else, in a totally legal and normal to court proceedings way.
This is just called being a good litigator.
It's pretty easy for experienced interrogators to play someone who is overconfident and fairly dumb. It's interesting how Truump Sr. acts in these situations, though... he drops the BS and is very careful. Probably why he was worried about his sons testifying.