Prosecutors Leave Decision on Delaying Trump’s Sentencing Up to Judge

Lawyers for Donald J. Trump had asked to move the sentencing in his Manhattan criminal case to after the election. In a letter, prosecutors disputed many of their arguments.

Manhattan prosecutors disputed many of Donald J. Trump’s arguments for delaying sentencing in his criminal hush-money case until after Election Day, but said they would leave the politically fraught decision to the judge alone.

In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Justice Juan M. Merchan, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to endorse either the existing schedule or a delay. The former president had asked to postpone the sentencing until after the election partly so he had more time to challenge his conviction.

The sentencing is currently set for Sept. 18, just seven weeks before Election Day, when Mr. Trump, now a felon, will square off against Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency. The prosecutors, the letter said, are “prepared to appear for sentencing” at any date the judge chooses.

“The people defer to the court on the appropriate post-trial schedule that allows for adequate time” for Mr. Trump to challenge his conviction, “while also pronouncing sentence without unreasonable delay,” the prosecutors wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 16 and released on Monday.

The district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, appeared to strike a middle ground in hopes of navigating around a partisan backlash so close to Election Day.

If Mr. Bragg had opposed a postponement, Mr. Trump would have accused him of meddling in the election. But explicitly consenting to Mr. Trump’s delay tactics might have alienated Mr. Bragg’s liberal Manhattan base as it demands accountability for the former president, who was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal.