The lawyers filed a motion Friday to move the trial from Virginia to Washington, The New York Times reported.

“The circumstances here present a prima facie case that venue was selected in the Eastern District of Virginia in order to obtain a jury pool with fewer African-Americans,” Robert P. Trout, one of Jefferson’s lawyers, said in court papers.

Jefferson was indicted June 4 on bribery and corruption charges, following a long investigation. The most heavily reported detail of the case is that FBI agents found $90,000 concealed in a freezer in Jefferson’s Washington home.

A Justice Department spokesman said the case was brought in Virginia because some of the alleged crimes occurred there and two co-defendants pleaded guilty in federal court in northern Virginia.

Jefferson allegedly took bribes to help a telecommunications company do business in Africa.