'The former president should be worried': Why Donald Trump is facing a rough 2023

Donald Trump will be hit with criminal charges next year, according to Jordan Rubin, a legal analyst for MSNBC who previously served as a prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

In a new column, Rubin outlined why he believed that the twice-impeached former president would face charges in 2023.

The legal expert noted that the House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack voted to refer Trump to the Department of Justice for obstruction of an official proceeding of the United States government, conspiring to defraud the U.S., making false statements to the federal government and inciting or engaging in an insurrection.

"But unfortunately for Trump, that’s only one piece of the puzzle," Rubin said.

Trump is also facing criminal and civil investigations into his business practices. His efforts to overturn his election defeat in the swing state of Georgia are also under scrutiny.

"The former president should be worried," Rubin said.

In a dramatic and unprecedented move, federal agents seized classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last summer.

Before the raid, the FBI uncovered "multiple sources of evidence" showing that "classified documents" remained at Mar-a-Lago and were "likely concealed" to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing.

"So with all of that looming, is it really possible for Trump not to be charged anywhere? Sure," Rubin concluded.

"But that seems unlikely at this point. And, partly because of the challenges of accusing a potential president of crimes, any prosecutor bringing charges will want to do so by next year. That wouldn’t eliminate the novel issues of charging a 2024 presidential candidate even in 2023, which would prompt a series of unprecedented legal questions, as Trump is wont to do. What seems clear, though, is that the former president is poised for a bad year."