NEW YORK – A judge is due to decide on Tuesday if to cancel The conviction of President-elect Donald Trump in his hush money case because of a US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s landmark trial, is now tasked with deciding whether to throw out the jury’s verdict and order a new trial — or even dismiss the charges entirely. The judge’s decision could also discuss whether the former and now future commander-in-chief will be sentenced as scheduled for Nov. 26.

Republican regained the White House a week ago, but the legal issue concerns his status as a former president, not an imminent one.

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

He says they didn’t, denies any wrongdoing and claims the prosecution was a political tactic designed to damage his latest campaign.

A little over a month after the verdict, The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for actions they took while running the country, and prosecutors cannot invoke those actions even to support a case centered on purely personal conduct.

Trump’s lawyers cited the decision they argue that the hush money grand jury obtained some evidence they shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from White House aides.

Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case.

Trump’s criminal conviction was a first for any former president. It left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.

The case centered on how Trump explained his personal attorney’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payment.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, was in front of the money. He later recouped it through a series of payments that Trump’s company booked as legal expenses. Trump, then in the White House, signed most of the checks himself.

Prosecutors said the designation was intended to hide the true purpose of the payments and help cover a broader effort to prevent voters from hearing unflattering claims about the Republican during his first campaign.

Trump said Cohen was legitimately paid for legal services and that the Daniels story was suppressed to avoid embarrassing the Trump family, not to influence the electorate.

Trump was a private citizen — campaigning for president but neither elected nor sworn in — when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was repaid, and Cohen testified that they discussed the arrangement. reimbursement in the Oval Office.

Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the verdict and may now try to capitalize on his status as president-elect. Although he was tried as a private citizen, his upcoming return to the White House could prompt a court to step in and avoid the unprecedented spectacle of convicting a former and future president.

While urging Merchan to overturn the conviction, Trump also sought to take the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge he repeatedly said no on the move, but Trump appealed.