Campaigner Marcus Bal said Johnson had launched a judicial review application in the administrative court.
The former foreign secretary’s lawyers would argue the summons issued to him last Wednesday by district judge Margot Coleman was unlawful and that the criminal proceedings against him should be suspended until the judicial review application was determined, Ball said.
A spokesman for Johnson declined to comment.
The summons issued last week calls Johnson to Westminster magistrates court, where Ball is attempting to prosecute him for misconduct in a public office. He claims the Tory MP lied during the referendum campaign by saying that Britain gave £350m a week to the European Union.
The private prosecutor has crowdfunded more than £200,000 through an online campaign to prosecute Johnson.
If a judicial review is granted, a more senior judge will decide whether the summons is lawful and whether any further proceedings will take place.
Ball said fighting Johnson’s judicial review application was a “particularly expensive part of the legal process” and called on the public to donate to his campaign. “When politicians lie. democracy dies,” he said.
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