Trump asks federal appeals court to toss indictment accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election in late-night filing claiming he was protected under presidential immunity

Donald Trump has petitioned a Washington appeals court to dismiss a federal indictment accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, in his latest attempt to avoid prosecution.

The former president's lawyers filed a petition late Saturday evening with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that he is immune from charges because they stem from actions he took while serving in the White House.

It is the latest development in an ongoing and pivotal legal dispute between Trump and special counsel Jack Smith over election interference.

The 77-year-old Republican argued that the case should be dismissed because former presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for conduct related to their official responsibilities.

In a 55-page brief to the court, Trump's attorney John D. Sauers suggested that under the Constitution, judges cannot hold the president responsible for actions taken while in office.

'In our system of separated powers, the judiciary cannot judge the official actions of a president. That doctrine is not controversial,” Sauer wrote.

Supporters of US President Donald Trump storm the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

The filing states what the former president's lawyers have repeatedly alleged: that Trump had worked in his official capacity as president to “ensure election integrity.”

“The unbroken tradition of not exercising the supposedly formidable power of criminally prosecuting a president for official acts — despite ample motives and opportunities to do so, over the centuries — implies that that power does not exist,” Sauer wrote .

His lawyers argued that the charge was unconstitutional and that Trump could only face criminal charges for “official acts” if he is impeached and convicted by the Senate.

“The Constitution provides powerful structural checks to prevent political factions from abusing the formidable threat of criminal prosecution to eliminate the President and attack their political enemies,” Trump's lawyers wrote in the Saturday filing.

“Before a single prosecutor can ask a court to review the president's conduct, Congress must have approved it by impeaching and convicting the president,” they argued.

“That didn't happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity.”

The judge in the case, Tanya S. Chutkan, had said just weeks ago that the former president did not have a “lifetime get-out-of-jail-free pass.”

Judge Chutkan argued that despite his former status as president, Trump may still be “subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts committed while in office.”

The appeals court has expedited consideration of Trump's appeal and will hear oral arguments on January 9, days before the Iowa Caucuses.

Prosecutors have accused Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, of obstructing Congress and defrauding the US government through plans to overturn Democratic President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

They say Trump broke the law by trying to push state lawmakers to make decisions that would keep him in power, including pressuring the Justice Department to validate claims that there was election fraud in the 2020 election took place.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to immediately rule on former President Donald Trump's claim that he cannot be prosecuted for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, allowing a lower court to investigate the issue further.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the former president labeled the case brought by Smith a “desperate attempt to short-circuit our Great Constitution.”

Special counsel Jack Smith has claimed that Trump's legal team is trying to delay the federal election interference trial until after the November presidential election. The timeline for his case is now in jeopardy

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an attempt by Smith to immediately hear the case before the D.C. Circuit Court had a chance to rule.

Trump blasted Smith's attempt to expedite the case as a “desperate attempt to short-circuit our Great Constitution.”

“The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected Deranged Jack Smith's desperate attempt to short-circuit our Great Constitution,” he said in Truth Social.

“Corrupt Joe Biden and his accomplices waited three years to bring this sham case, and now they have tried and failed to push this witch hunt through the courts.

'Of course I am entitled to presidential immunity. “I was president, it was my right and duty to investigate and speak out about the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election.”

The decision was a victory for the Republican presidential candidate and raises the possibility that it will delay his federal election interference trial, which is set to start on March 4.

Now Trump's legal troubles could come closer to or even after the Nov. 5 general election, where he is vying for a rematch with 81-year-old Joe Biden.

If Trump is re-elected to a second term in the White House on November 5, he could try to pardon himself for any federal crimes — although constitutional scholars are divided on whether he would have the authority

The judges, three of whom were appointed by Trump, will also hear the Colorado case on whether he can be kicked off the ballot for being an “insurrectionist.”

If Trump is re-elected to a second term in the White House on Nov. 5, he could try to pardon himself for any federal crimes — though constitutional scholars are divided on whether he would have the authority.

Trump still faces a tangle of lawsuits.

TThe Stormy Daniels case in New York, where Trump is accused of falsifying company records related to the $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels, will go to trial on March 25.

The Trump case involving an attempt to overturn the election continues to develop in Georgia, and he has also been charged with conspiring to hide national security documents at Mar-a-Lago, in a Florida trial that is months behind schedule .