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Donald Trump's defense requested on Thursday that the classified documents case he faces in Florida be dismissed, arguing that the former president is protected by presidential immunity.
In a motion filed in the Southern District of Florida court, the Republican's lawyers claim that Trump's decision to declassify several confidential documents and take them to his Mar-a-Lago residence was made while he was still president, making him immune from prosecution.
Presidential immunity has become a common argument in various cases that the U.S. Department of Justice has open against Trump, especially in the Washington D.C. case for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results when he lost to Joe Biden.
The trial in D.C. was scheduled to begin on March 4, but Judge Tanya Chutkan decided to postpone it pending a possible decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the validity of the presidential immunity argument.
Last week, the special prosecutor investigating the former president, Jack Smith, asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Trump's defense's request for intervention in the matter.
A D.C. appeals court already ruled on February 6 that the former president, upon leaving the White House, became an ordinary "citizen," and therefore is no longer protected by the immunity he had while in office.
"The D.C. appeals court's analysis is not persuasive," said Trump's lawyers in their motion on Thursday, warning the Florida court that it "should not accept the poorly reasoned and non-binding decision" of that body.
The former president faces four criminal cases against him and has claimed that all are politically motivated because he is the "favorite" in the upcoming November presidential elections.