NEW YORK — A judge is set to rule Tuesday on whether to overturn President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s historic trial, is now tasked with deciding whether to throw out the jury’s verdict and order a new trial — or even dismiss the charges altogether. The judge’s ruling may also speak to whether the former and now future commander-in-chief will be sentenced as scheduled on November 26.

The Republican won back the White House a week ago but the legal issue concerns his status as a former president, not an incumbent.

A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payment was to buy her silence about allegations that she had sex with Trump.

He says they didn’t, denies any wrongdoing and claims the prosecution was a political tactic meant to hurt his latest campaign.

Just over a month after the ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for actions they took while running the country, and prosecutors cannot cite those actions even to support a case that focuses on purely personal conduct.

Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure forms and testimony from some White House aides.

Prosecutors disagreed, saying the evidence in question was only “one piece” of their case.

Trump’s criminal conviction was the first for any ex-president. That left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of penalties ranging from fines or probation to up to four years in prison.

The case revolved around how Trump responded to substitute his personal attorney for Daniels’ payment.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, fronted the money. He later recouped it through a series of payments that Trump’s company recorded as legal fees. Trump, by then in the White House, signed most of the checks himself.

Prosecutors said the appointment was intended to hide the true purpose of the payments and help cover up a broader effort to keep voters from hearing unflattering claims about the Republican during his first campaign.

Trump said Cohen was legitimately paid for legal services, and that Daniels’ story was suppressed to avoid embarrassing Trump’s family, not to influence voters.

Trump was a private citizen — campaigning for president, but neither elected nor sworn in — when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was paid, and Cohen testified that they discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.

Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the ruling and may now try to use his status as president-elect. Although he was tried as a private citizen, his impending return to the White House could prompt a court to step in and avoid the unprecedented spectacle of sentencing a former and future president.

While urging Merchan to vacate the conviction, Trump has also sought to move the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge repeatedly said no to the move, but Trump has appealed.