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A judge delayed Tuesday’s ruling on whether to throw out President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal conviction. in your secret money case due to a US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Judge Juan M. Merchán told Trump’s lawyers that he will delay the ruling until November 19.

According to emails filed with the court, Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, requested the delay over the weekend, arguing that suspending the case (and then ending it entirely) is “necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to the Trump’s ability to govern.” President Trump.”

Prosecutors accepted the delay.

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

RELATED: Trump Lawyers Push to Overturn Hush Money Conviction After Supreme Court Ruling

Trump convicted in secret money trial

Trump, 78, was found guilty on May 30, 2024, of 34 counts of falsifying business records after more than nine hours of deliberations, making him the first former US president convicted of felonies.

Sentencing was scheduled for November 26. The judge delayed it from Sept. 18 after the Republican candidate asked for it to be delayed until after the election.

Trump’s legal fight

Trump asked the judge to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling to argue that the seized jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House aides.

RELATED: The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling is “a big victory” for Donald Trump, explains an expert

Supreme Court grants Trump some immunity

In a landmark 6-3 ruling in July, the Supreme Court said for the first time that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts.

However, the justices ordered lower courts to determine precisely how to apply the decision, specifically to Trump.

RELATED: Supreme Court returns Trump immunity case to lower court

The judge’s decision arose from Washington’s criminal case against Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump was charged in August 2023 by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies knowingly pushed lies about voter fraud to pressure state officials to overturn Biden’s victory, worked to recruit lists of fake electors in battleground states and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence. , to interrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes.

The ruling reflected a blunt view of presidential power and left dissenting justices criticizing it for undermining a fundamental democratic principle that no person is above the law.

Trump’s plan to dismiss his other cases

Trump has said that “within two seconds” of taking office he would fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who has been prosecuting two federal cases against him. Smith is already evaluating how to close the cases because of the Justice Department’s long-standing policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Smith accused Trump last year of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Trump cannot forgive himself when it comes to his New York state conviction in a hush money case, but he could try to take advantage of his status as president-elect in an effort to overturn or expunge his felony conviction and avoid a possible prison sentence. .

A case in Georgia, where Trump was charged with election interference, will likely be the only criminal case left standing. It would likely be put on hold until at least 2029, the end of his presidential term. The Georgia prosecutor in charge of the case just won re-election.