(The Center Square) – A New York judge on Tuesday delayed a decision on whether to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction for maintaining his silence following the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and Trump’s election victory. last week.

At the request of prosecutors and defense attorneys, Judge Juan Merchán paused the court calendar for a week while prosecutors decide how to proceed following Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last Tuesday.

Merchan agreed to freeze the case until Nov. 19, according to court records released Tuesday. That gives prosecutors more time to respond to Trump’s request that the case be dismissed entirely after his election victory.

“The suspension and dismissal are necessary to prevent unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern,” Trump attorney Emil Bove wrote in an email to the judge.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office agreed to delay the proceedings while it considers how to respond to Trump’s dismissal request.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence with the People on Friday require careful consideration,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote to the judge.

Merchan, who had already delayed Trump’s sentencing several months before the election, was due to decide Tuesday whether Trump’s conviction stands after the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity decision in July.

Following the high court’s decision, Trump’s defense team asked Merchan to dismiss the case. Bragg’s office argued that the ruling by the nation’s highest court is unrelated to Trump’s conviction on charges that he illegally paid money to keep women quiet about alleged sexual encounters and then concealed the payments as legal expenses during his campaign. of 2016.

The judge said that if Trump’s motion to dismiss fails, “the law requires the imposition of a sentence following a guilty verdict without unreasonable delay.”

Prosecutors said they are trying to balance Trump’s next term in the White House with the jury’s verdict in the case.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense attorneys in correspondence…require careful consideration to ensure that any additional steps in this proceeding adequately balance (1) a guilty verdict of the jury after a trial that has a presumption of regularity and (2) the Office of the President,” wrote prosecutor Michael Colangelo.

Prosecutors said they will decide how to proceed by Nov. 19.

In late May, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on all counts in his hush money case. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush payments to an adult film actress as legal costs before the 2016 election. Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents and former presidents have absolute immunity for actions involving fundamental constitutional powers and presumptive immunity for official actions. The ruling said the president does not have immunity for unofficial conduct.