NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s victory means the nation’s first convicted felon-turned-president-elect is headed to the White House rather than a jail cell.

Indeed, Trump’s November 26 sentencing hearing in the hush money case will almost certainly not take place.

“I think any reasonable judge would not convict the president-elect,” said Jill Konviser, a retired New York trial judge.

Imposing a sentence now — even one other than prison, such as home confinement, probation or community service — would interfere with the future president’s duties, legal experts say.

In theory, the judge who presided over the secret trial, Judge Juan Merchan, could attempt to proceed with sentencing as scheduled and order that any sentencing be deferred until 2029, when Trump finishes out his term. But even that would pose problems, as Trump’s lawyers are sure to argue that dragging the president-elect into a state courtroom in the midst of a presidential transition would hinder the orderly transfer of power.

“His lawyers will say he is busy with the transition and so he will not show up, and they will ask that the sentencing be adjourned until after the presidency,” predicted former prosecutor Catherine Christian.

Trump was sentenced in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The maximum sentence is four years prison, and his sentencing was initially expected to take place over the summer. But Trump managed to delay the sentencing date twice.

Trump faces three other criminal cases, all of which are far from trial – and which are all likely to stop now that Trump has won the election.

If Merchan believes he cannot hold the sentencing hearing on November 26, it is unclear whether he would cancel it altogether or attempt to put the case on hold for four years with a plan to convict Trump when he leaves office.

“There’s no playbook here. This is an unprecedented situation,” Konviser said.

Merchan must separately rule on November 12 on a Trump’s request that the guilty verdict be quashed in light of the July Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. If the judge sides with Trump on this request, the sentencing hearing will become moot. But many legal experts consider Trump’s immunity argument in the financial silence case to be a failure.

Merchan likely won’t release the sentencing date until Trump’s legal team files a motion on the matter. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, did not respond to questions Wednesday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which prosecuted the case, will also likely rule on whether sentencing should proceed. Legal experts said they did not expect Bragg to oppose a request to cancel the Nov. 26 hearing.

The prosecutor’s office did not object to the two previous sentence deferrals requested by Trump.

“I don’t see the sentence being handed down even assuming the judge agrees that the case should continue for sentencing,” said former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Saland.

“The former president/president-elect is not convicted.”