CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Friday that Judge Juan Merchan is unlikely to ever sentence President-elect Donald Trump, despite his conviction in New York.

Merchan issued an order on Friday indefinitely postponing Trump’s sentencing, which had initially been scheduled for Tuesday. The judge granted the defense until Dec. 2 to file a motion to dismiss the case and directed prosecutors to respond by Dec. 9.

Speaking on CNN News Central, Honig argued that the sentencing would likely never occur, predicting that the case would eventually “go away.”

“It means that the sentencing is on hold indefinitely and quite possibly for more than that, probably never to actually happen, because what they have to do before that is litigate the whole issue of, is Donald Trump immune? Can a state-level prosecution proceed against him while he’s president-elect and then president?” Honig said.

“I’m gonna spoil the bottom line here: He’s not going to get sentenced on this case. He’s not going to get sentenced before he becomes president. He’s not going to get sentenced while he’s president,” Honig added.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a filing on Tuesday, proposed delaying the remaining proceedings in the case until the conclusion of Trump’s presidential term in 2029.

“And [Bragg] earlier this week actually floated the possibility — they said, ‘We may want to hold open the option of sentencing him after he’s done his second term,’ meaning in 2029. That is not going to happen,” Honig continued. “That is a ridiculous request legally and practically. So essentially, we’re playing out the string here. I think eventually this case will go away. It’s just a question of what the niceties will be down the stretch.”

The president-elect’s defense attorneys argued on Tuesday that Merchan has no option but to dismiss the case immediately “in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential election.”

But others disagree, especially analysts on the left. MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg said Friday she “would be shocked” if Merchan tosses the case.

“There’s no basis for that. Nothing I’ve seen in the very short submission already from the defense cites to any legal authority suggesting that that should be the proper outcome to just toss a jury’s verdict because now Trump is going to be president again,” Greenberg said.

“I expect that Judge Merchan will deny that, but I do think that staying the proceedings is where we will be, and that this sentencing won’t take place until after his term is concluded,” she said.