Donald Trump won a delay to his sentencing in the New York hush money criminal case until after the Nov. 5 presidential election, giving the Republican nominee a reprieve from a potential prison term just weeks before voters go to the polls.

Trump will be sentenced Nov. 26 instead of Sept. 18 as originally planned, Judge Juan Merchan ruled, conceding that going forward could have had an impact on the election. The judge also said he’ll rule on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict on presidential immunity grounds by Nov. 12.

The delay will "avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the defendant is a candidate,” Merchan, whom Trump has frequently accused of bias, wrote in the ruling Friday.

The delay comes as the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remains a toss-up. The historic sentencing would have been another unprecedented moment in a political campaign that has already seen Joe Biden step aside as the Democratic nominee in favor of Harris.

The 78-year-old former president was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter. He faces as long as four years behind bars, though a much shorter term — or just probation — is also a possibility.

"This is not a decision this court makes lightly, but it is the decision which in this court’s view best advances the interests of justice,” Merchan said, adding that the case has a "unique place in this nation’s history.” But Merchan also said it’s not unusual to delay sentencing in cases where both sides agree to do so.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said there should be no sentencing hearing and the case should be dismissed. He called the case a partisan "hoax.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, didn’t object to a delay and had left it for the judge to decide.

"A jury of 12 New Yorkers swiftly and unanimously convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts,” Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Bragg. "The Manhattan DA’s office stands ready for sentencing on the new date set by the court.”

The judge said a delay would not have been necessary if the earlier July sentencing date had gone ahead. That date was pushed back as a result of additional arguments by Trump on presidential immunity. He raised the issue after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal charges over official conduct in office. Trump is also pursuing a separate bid to get a federal court to take over the case, though his attempts so far have been rejected.

The decision was handed down shortly after Trump appeared in a federal appeals court in New York in a different case, seeking to overturn a jury verdict against him in writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual-abuse lawsuit.

The dueling New York court proceedings — in addition to a Washington hearing in a federal election interference case Thursday — put the focus back on Trump’s legal problems at the height of the presidential campaign.

After the appeals court hearing, but before Merchan’s ruling, Trump criticized both the judge and Bragg at a news conference in Manhattan.

"That case is a disgrace. It should have never been allowed,” Trump said. Bragg "took a nonexistent, expired, long-expired misdemeanor, and he made it into 34, or something more than that, counts of felony, no one can even believe it, over nothing.”

Trump has historically been able to turn his legal woes into a rallying cry, fundraising off each indictment as well as his May conviction. Since Harris has taken over the top of the Democratic ticket, however, Trump has trailed the vice president’s fundraising arm, raking in $130 million in August compared with Harris’ $361 million haul.