A judge on Monday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump's bid to throw out his hush money conviction because of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the overall future of the case is unclear.

The decision by Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan eliminates a possible exit from the case before Trump's return to office next month. His lawyers, however, have raised other arguments for the dismissal.

Prosecutors have said there should be some accommodation for his next presidency, but insist the sentence should stand.

a jury Trump condemned in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.

The allegations involved a scheme to conceal the payment to Daniels during the final days of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to prevent her from publishing — and from voters hearing — her claim of a sexual encounter with then- married business years before. He says nothing sexual happened between them.

Judgment of the Supreme Court after the judgment

Weeks after the verdict, ruled the Supreme Court that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts, things they did while running the country, and that prosecutors cannot cite those actions to bolster a case centered on purely personal, non-official conduct.

Trump's lawyers then cited the Supreme Court opinion to argue that the hush money jury obtained improper evidence, including Trump's presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides and the social media posts made while in office.

In Monday's ruling, Merchan denied most of Trump's claims that some of the prosecutors' evidence related to official acts and involved immunity protections.

The judge said that even if he found that some of the evidence related to official conduct, he would still find that prosecutors' decision to use "these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion into the authority and function of the executive power”.

Even if prosecutors had erroneously introduced evidence that could be challenged under an immunity claim, Merchan continued, "that error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt."

Prosecutors had said the evidence in question was only "a fragment" of their case.

Trump's communications director, Steven Cheung, on Monday called Merchan's decision a "direct violation of the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity and other longstanding case law."

"This lawless case should never have been filed, and the Constitution requires that it be immediately dismissed," Cheung said in a statement.

The Manhattan district attorney's office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

The 78-year-old Trump, who won the US presidential election on November 5takes possession of the position on January 20.