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Washington — The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal charges filed against it by the Justice Department, saying the indictment represents a "top-down, retributive campaign" directed by President Trump to target his enemies.

The 47-page filing in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama documents a series of public statements by the president and other top administration officials targeting the center, including one in which Mr. Trump called it "one of the greatest political scams in American History."

"This is the very definition of a vindictive prosecution," lawyers for the SPLC wrote. "The Court should dismiss the indictment as a violation of due process."

The Justice Department secured an 11-count indictment in April, charging the civil rights nonprofit with wire fraud and bank fraud. The indictment alleges that the group, which is best known for its work to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, lied to donors about paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups and deceived banks about the bank accounts used to make those payments....

Numerous former federal prosecutors have publicly weighed in on the indictment against the SPLC, saying it appears to be weak and has a likely chance of being dismissed due to a variety of legal defects with how the case is charged.

In the group's motion to dismiss the charges on Tuesday, its lawyers noted that investigators from the FBI and IRS probed the organization and interviewed several people sometime between 2019 and 2020, but never sought criminal charges.