NEW YORK -- New York prosecutors oppose any effort to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump's hush money conviction, but they expressed openness Tuesday to delaying sentencing until after his impending second term.

In a court filing, 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.

Prosecutors said they're OK delaying Trump's sentencing — which had been set for Nov. 26 — while his lawyers fight to get the case tossed out.

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 squelch a story of extramarital sex. Trump denies the allegations.

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.

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 added.

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.

The judge last week delayed ruling on Trump's earlier bid to reverse his conviction because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that gave presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

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 period, 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.