New York prosecutors oppose any effort to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump's hush money conviction, but they expressed some openness Tuesday to delaying sentencing until after his impending second term.
In a court filing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said Trump's forthcoming presidency isn't grounds for dropping a case that was already tried. But "given the need to balance competing constitutional interests," prosecutors said, "consideration must be given" to potentially freezing the case until after he's out of office.
The former and future president was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to suppress a story of extramarital sex. Trump denies the allegations.
His sentencing had been set for November 26. But after Trump's election win this month, his lawyers urged Judge Juan M. Merchan to throw out the case. They wrote that it must be scrapped "to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power — and in the interests of justice."
Merchan gave prosecutors until Tuesday to weigh in on how to proceed.
VOA's Kim Lewis spoke with Claire Finkelstein, law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, about Trump's case. Finkelstein said a suspended sentence for Trump "would not hamper" his ability "to carry out his constitutional duties as president." After his term is finished, Finkelstein said, Trump could then serve his time.
A sentence for a president, the professor said, would only be an issue "if that sentence were to be carried out as president."
Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday they "are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency" and realize that Trump's return to the White House "will raise unprecedented legal questions."
"We also deeply respect the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system," they said.
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No decision has been made, and Merchan has not said when he will rule. Still, Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung cast Tuesday's filing from prosecutors as "a total and definitive victory for President Trump" in a case that he has long deplored as a "witch hunt."
"President Trump's legal team is moving to get it dismissed once and for all," Cheung said in a statement.
A dismissal would erase Trump's historic conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record as well as a possible prison sentence.
Merchan could also decide to delay the case for some other length of time, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump's parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. The payment was made shortly before the 2016 election.
Trump says they did not have sex and denies any wrongdoing.
