Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday rebuffed President-elect Donald J. Trump’s request to dismiss his criminal conviction in the wake of his electoral victory, signaling instead their willingness to freeze the case while he holds office.
In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, the prosecutors emphasized that a jury had already convicted Mr. Trump of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal.
But acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the case — Mr. Trump would be the first felon to serve as president — the prosecutors raised the prospect of a four-year freeze.
“The people deeply respect the office of the president, are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, and acknowledge that defendant’s inauguration will raise unprecedented legal questions,” prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office wrote to the judge, Juan M. Merchan. “We also deeply respect the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system.”
Eager to clear his criminal record, Mr. Trump is now expected to move forcefully for a dismissal, setting in motion a legal battle that could shadow his second presidential term and ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court. That fight will almost certainly further delay Mr. Trump’s sentencing, which was scheduled for next week.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump, Steven Cheung, celebrated the delay, calling it “a total and definitive victory for President Trump and the American people.”
He added: “The lawless case is now stayed, and President Trump’s legal team is moving to get it dismissed once and for all.”
In court records last week that hinted at a Supreme Court challenge, Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that dismissing the case would “avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.” Doing so, they added, was “in the interests of justice.”
The district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, took a week to deliberate before delivering Tuesday’s much-anticipated response.
His options were limited and unappealing: He could have either dropped the case, a move that would have alienated his liberal Manhattan base, or proposed some way to pause it, potentially intensifying Mr. Trump’s ire and drawing a legal challenge.
Ultimately, Mr. Bragg, the first prosecutor in the country to indict and convict a former president, opted to stand behind the jury’s verdict.
His prosecutors asked Justice Merchan to set deadlines for both sides to submit formal arguments in the battle over a potential dismissal.
That will tee up a legally and politically fraught decision for Justice Merchan, the no-nonsense judge who presided over Mr. Trump’s seven-week trial this year. Even as Mr. Trump has accused Justice Merchan of being “biased” and “corrupt” — and leveled personal attacks at his daughter, a Democratic political consultant — the judge has vowed to apply “the rules of law evenhandedly.”
It is unclear how Justice Merchan will eventually rule as he balances the weight of a jury verdict against the extraordinary status of the defendant.
A former prosecutor known for his law-and-order leanings, Justice Merchan might be hesitant to unravel the jury’s verdict. Instead, he could be more amenable to freezing the case, having already postponed the sentencing twice.
Long sentencing delays are not unheard-of. When defendants are ill — or cooperating with prosecutors against other defendants — it can take months or years to be sentenced.
But another delay for Mr. Trump — this one lasting four years — would punctuate the sharp reversal in his legal fortunes. Just a few months ago, Mr. Trump was facing the prospect of serving time behind bars in New York, as well as trials in three other criminal cases.
Now, all four cases may unravel. In July, a judge he appointed during his first term dismissed his federal classified documents case in Florida in its entirety. The same month, his federal election interference case in Washington was upended following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision granting him broad immunity for official actions taken as president.
While the federal special counsel who brought those cases made efforts to revive them, Mr. Trump’s victory thwarted those plans. The federal judge overseeing his election interference case in Washington recently paused all filing deadlines while the special counsel, Jack Smith, weighed whether to drop the case entirely.
The future is less clear in Georgia, where Mr. Trump’s state racketeering case has been on hold for months as an appeals court weighed whether to disqualify the prosecutor. At some point, Mr. Trump’s lawyers are expected to call for a long delay if not an outright dismissal.
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