"The defendant hopes to avoid that harm by receiving a presidential pardon from a future executive. But the defendant's personal motivation to avoid public disclosure of her judgment of conviction is no reason to delay entry of judgment and deviate from the regular order of criminal procedure," the motion stated.

"And, even if the defendant were to receive a pardon at some unspecified date in the future"which is purely speculative at this juncture"that pardon would not unring the bell of conviction," the prosecutors wrote.

"In fact, quite the opposite. The defendant would first have to accept the pardon, which necessitates a confession of guilt."

Prosecutors wrote that a pardon would not undo the fact of the crime, only prevent punishment for that crime. If anything, a pardon would be to admit to the crime."

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Criminals should have criminal records.