Manafort Trial Day 14: The waiting is the hardest part. The jury will resume deliberations at 9:30am. Check out the thread below for a recap of yesterday's activity (or lack thereof): And to catch up on our previous trial coverage: buzzfeed.com/zoetillman
The jury went out to deliberate at 9:37am. After they left, the judge addressed a motion that a coalition of media groups (including BuzzFeed) filed seeking info on jurors and to unseal various sealed docs/transcripts. Here's the motion: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4770… 
The judge granted the media's motion to intervene to argue for access, and said he'd try to hold a hearing this afternoon on the substance of the request. The judge said he plans to release sealed materials at the end of the case, with "one exception" (didn't say what that was)
The judge said he didn't have hard feelings towards the media for arguing for access. "A thirsty press is essential to a free country."
At one point, prosecutor Greg Andres said that given the different categories of info the media wanted unsealed, it would be better to address some issues at the bench. The judge did so — thus creating another sealed transcript, he noted.
We are done for the day — no verdict. The jury had asked to leave at 5pm (instead of 5:30pm) so one of them could get to an event, and the judge agreed. No questions from them today. They'll reconvene at 9:30am on Monday.
Mid-afternoon, the judge heard arguments on the press motion for access to juror info and sealed proceedings. He said he wouldn't release the jury names, citing threats he's gotten during the trial and worrying that would happen to jurors if their identities became public
The judge noted he was now receiving special protection, which we hadn't heard about before. The judge said he would unseal most of the sealed bench conferences and other materials at the end of the trial, which the press lawyer was fine with
Finally, there's a third set of information that the judge said he would keep sealed, citing a concern about interfering with an ongoing investigation (we don't know any details about that). The judge generally said that he supported making as much info public as possible
Week III of Paul Manafort's trial ended with no verdict (deliberations to resume Monday), but there was some news today: The judge revealed he's been threatened, and is getting special protection from the US Marshals Service buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
