Former FBI Director James Comey asked a federal judge on Monday to throw out his criminal case, arguing that his indictment was illegally motivated by President Donald Trump’s public demands for revenge and carried out by a prosecutor who was never lawfully appointed.

In a 51-page motion to dismiss, Comey’s lawyers said a Sept. 20 Truth Social post from Trump, an alleged direct-message mix-up with Attorney General Pam Bondi, was “smoking gun evidence” that the charges were politically ordered.