Jailed Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is filing a lawsuit against Barack Obama, challenging his placement in solitary confinement and seeking to dismiss the federal government's felony charges that could condemn him to die behind bars.

The suit from the rancher, who led a high-profile standoff against the government in 2014, also names US judge Gloria Navarro and Nevada senator Harry Reid and will be filed on Tuesday, according to Bundy's attorney, Joel Hansen, who provided the Guardian with a draft copy.

The complaint offers a defense of the 70-year old's infamous comment that black people may have been "better off as slaves, picking cotton" and slams Obama for "despicable disrespectful mocking" of Bundy at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Dinner.

The lawsuit comes as Bundy faces numerous federal charges stemming from the April 2014 showdown at his property when authorities tried unsuccessfully to seize his cattle and faced off with hundreds of supporters, some heavily armed, who defended the family's ranch in Bunkerville, about 80 miles north-east of Las Vegas.