The request regarding the president-elect’s immunity will be considered

NEW YORK – Judge postpones decision on or undo President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction leaves prosecutors wondering how to proceed last week’s election and his lawyers are arguing for his release so he can run the country.

Postponement announced on Tuesday comes at a dramatic and energetic moment in a New York case that centered on how Trump settled payments to a pornographic actor before the 2016 election and produced the first-ever conviction ex commander-in-chief.

» READ MORE: US Supreme Court ruling on US presidential immunity explained and what it means if Trump could stand trial

Sentencing is scheduled for November 26. However, Manhattan prosecutors say they are currently re-evaluating the case and appear open to the possibility that the prosecution will not go as planned.

“These are unprecedented circumstances,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote in an email to the court. He said prosecutors must consider how to balance the “competing interests” of the jury verdict and the presidency.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, argued that the case should be dismissed entirely “to avoid unconstitutional obstacles to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

The messages were exchanged over the weekend and were published on Tuesday, when Judge Juan M. Merchan was scheduled to rule on an earlier request by Trump’s lawyers to dismiss his conviction on another ground – because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity.

Instead, Merchan told Trump’s lawyers he would halt the proceedings and delay the ruling until at least November 19 so that prosecutors could propose a further resolution. Both sides agreed to a one-week postponement.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung announced the delay. In a statement, he said the president-elect’s victory “makes absolutely clear that the American people want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, including this case that should never have been brought to court.”

Prosecutors declined to comment.

In May, a jury convicted Trump of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payout was intended to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Trump.

Trump says they didn’t have sex, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the impeachment was a political tactic to damage his latest campaign. Trump is a Republican. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, is a Democrat, like Merchan.

Just over a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for actions they took while leading the country, and prosecutors cannot rely on these actions even to strengthen a purely personal case.

Trump’s lawyers cited this ruling they argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as the president’s financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House advisers.

Prosecutors disagreed and stated that the evidence in question was only a “snippet” of their case.

Trump’s conviction was the first for any former president. In this situation, the 78-year-old faced a fine, probation or up to four years in prison.

The case centered on how Trump settled personal attorney fees for Daniels.

The money was donated by then-lawyer Michael Cohen. He later recouped them through a series of payments that Trump’s company counted as legal expenses. Trump, who was in the White House at the time, signed most of the checks himself.

Prosecutors said the designation was intended to mask the true purpose of the payments and support cover up broader efforts to prevent voters from hearing unflattering claims about Trump during his first campaign.

Trump said Cohen was legally paid for legal services and that Daniels’ story was suppressed to avoid embarrassment to the Trump family and not influence the electorate.

Trump was a private citizen and campaigning for president when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen received the refund, and Cohen testified that they discussed repayment arrangements in the Oval Office.

Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the verdict. While urging Merchan to overturn the conviction, the president-elect also tried to take the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge I said no many times to move, but Trump filed an appeal.

Trump faces three other, unrelated charges in different jurisdictions.

But Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is assessing how to end both the 2020 election interference case and a separate secret documents case against Trump before he takes office, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Long-standing Justice Department policy states that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, the Georgia election interference case against Trump is largely on hold he and the other defendants appealed AND judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue the prosecution.