A New York judge on Friday granted Donald Trump permission to seek dismissal of his hush money criminal case after his victory in the US presidential election.
Trump, 78, had been scheduled to be sentenced on November 26 after he was found guilty earlier this year.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office earlier this week asked New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to consider deferring all proceedings in the case until after Trump finishes his four-year presidential term that begins on Jan. 20.
Lawyers for Trump have argued that the case must be dismissed because having it loom over him while he was president would cause what they called "unconstitutional impediments" to his ability to govern.
They on Tuesday asked the judge to throw out the case ‘in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power’ as president-elect enters White House.
They argued that the US Justice Department was on the verge of dismissing Trump’s federal cases and pointed to a departmental memo that bars prosecution of sitting presidents.
“As in those cases, dismissal is necessary here,” their filing said. “Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect.”
Bragg's office said they would argue against dismissal, but agreed Trump deserved time to make his case through written motions.
Merchan on Friday set a December 2 deadline for Trump to file his motion to dismiss, and gave prosecutors until December 9 to respond.
The judge did not set a new date for sentencing or indicate how long proceedings would remain on hold. Merchan also did not indicate when he would rule on Trump's motion to dismiss.
Representatives for Trump's campaign and for Bragg's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his reimbursement of Cohen. It was the first time a US president - former or sitting - had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
Trump, a Republican, pleaded not guilty in the case, which he has sought to portray as a politically motivated attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to interfere with his election campaign.
