The judge presiding over former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial revealed on Friday that he has been receiving threats over the case and is now receiving protection from U.S. Marshals.
The revelation came after U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied a request from CNN and other left-of-center media outlets which sought to obtain the names and addresses of the 12 jurors in the trial, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I don’t feel right if I release their names,” Ellis said, according to Fox News’ Jake Gibson. “I think there would be a substantial amount of people afraid… to do so would create a risk of harm to them.”
“The Marshals go where I go,” Ellis added.
Fox News noted that the other news organizations that tried to obtain the information include The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, NBC, Politico, and BuzzFeed — all of which are widely viewed as left-leaning.
“I had no idea this case would excite these emotions, quite frankly,” Ellis said.
Jurors entered the second day of deliberations on Friday over the multiple tax evasion and bank fraud charges filed against Manafort.