NEW YORK – As prosecutors push to protect History of President-elect Donald Trump hush money convictionHis lawyers urged the judge on Wednesday to ignore them and throw out the case before he takes office in January.

The lawyers, who have reiterated their stance since Trump’s win, argued in a letter that continuing the case would interfere with the president-elect’s preparations to return to the White House and hinder his ability to govern the country.

Lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove said voters’ decision to return Trump to office should take precedence over the views of prosecutors, known in court as “The People of the State of New York.”

“The People of the Nation issued an order superseding the motivations of (the district attorney’s) ‘The People,'” Blanche and Bove wrote to Judge Juan M. Merchan. “This case needs to be dropped immediately”

Otherwise, they warned, prolonged objections would clash with Trump’s second term.

Trump, a Republican I listened to Blanche and Bove For high-ranking Justice Department jobs.

Trump was sentenced in May forging business records to cover up a plan to influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to silence a story of extramarital sex. Trump denies the allegations.

At a hearing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office opposed dismissing Trump’s case, but prosecutors said they were open to delaying the sentence until the end of next term.

“We have important competing constitutional interests, such as the office of the presidency and all the complications that come with it, on the one hand, and the sanctity of the jury verdict on the other,” Attorney General Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, told citizens Wednesday. Crime Commission, a local civic group.

Trump’s lawyers plan to file more paperwork formalizing their latest request to dismiss the case, which they call “politically motivated and fatally flawed.”

They asked for their application to be submitted by December 20 so they could see what special counsel Jack Smith had to say in the coming weeks. settlement of two federal lawsuits Against Trump.

Merchan did not set a deadline for such an application or its final decision.

Meanwhile, the case is effectively pending. Trump’s sentencing, set for November 26, will not proceed as planned.

Impeachment would erase Trump’s conviction, the first conviction of a former US president. If the ruling stands and the case proceeds to sentencing, Trump could face a fine, probation or up to four years in prison.

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.