By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday delayed a decision on whether to overturn President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case, as prosecutors consider how to proceed in light of last week’s election and his lawyers argue for dismissal, so so that they can apply. country.

The postponement comes at a dramatic and dynamic moment in the case, which focused on how Trump accounted for payments to a porn actor before the 2016 election and produced the first conviction of a former commander in chief.

Sentencing was set for November 26. But prosecutors now say they are reassessing and appear open to the possibility that proceedings may not go as planned.

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

Meanwhile, Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued the case should be thrown out altogether “to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

The messages were part of a chain of emails released Tuesday as New York Judge Juan M. Merchan was scheduled to rule on an earlier request by Trump’s lawyers to overturn his conviction on another ground — because of a US Supreme Court ruling this summer regarding the presidency. immunity.

Instead, Merchan told Trump’s lawyers he would halt the proceedings and delay the ruling until at least Nov. 19 so prosecutors could suggest a way forward. Both sides agreed to the one-week delay.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung announced the delay. He said in a statement that the president-elect’s win made it “very clear that the American people want an immediate end to the harmonization of our justice system, including this case, which should never have been filed.”

Prosecutors declined to comment.

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 claims she had sex with Trump.

Trump says they did not have sex, denies any wrongdoing and claims the prosecution was a political tactic designed to damage his latest campaign. Trump is a Republican. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, is a Democrat, as is Merchan.

Just 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 cite those actions even to support a case centered on a purely personal case. conduct.

Trump’s lawyers cited that ruling to argue that the hush money grand jury obtained some evidence it 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 just “a sliver” of their case.