Washington DC - Donald Trump's legal team made its latest attempt to have the Justice Department's 2020 election subversion trial dismissed on the basis of presidential immunity.

A filing submitted late Saturday with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rehashed familiar arguments for why charges related to Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden should be dismissed.

The 77-year-old's lawyers are doubling down on their strategy of claiming immunity for their client, calling his maneuvers at the time "quintessential presidential acts."

Trump was indicted in August on charges of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, among others, in a case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

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The prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday suffered a setback after the Supreme Court rejected a request to issue a speedy ruling on the presidential immunity defense.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the trial, ruled against Trump, but the final decision now ultimately lies with the appeals court.

This means the trial is unlikely to start in March 2024 as initially scheduled, and may even be delayed beyond next year's presidential election, in which Trump is virtually guaranteed to be the candidate for the Republican Party.

Re-election would give the real estate magnate the power to have the case dropped completely.