Mueller's team, Manafort's attorneys and U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III all took actions - either before trial or during proceedings in the historic Alexandria courthouse - to erase nearly all mentions of the president. But he said they were enough to make him wary of making the names of the 12 jurors and four alternates public, in response to a request from media organizations.
It is the first trial based on evidence collected by federal agents from Special Counsel Robert Muller's investigation into potential Russian collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. When he did offer thoughts on the trial moments later, he continued to attempt to put daylight between himself and his former campaign chair, telling reporters Manafort "worked for [him] for a very short period of time".
If you're Paul Manafort and you hear about that - and we all know Paul Manafort's heard about that - it's hard to read that as anything other than a message to Manafort: "'Hold on, don't cut a deal with the government while the jury is out.'" A deal would nearly certainly involve cooperation in other investigations, possibly including the president. "Thank you very much".
The case against the former Trump campaign chairman is the first courtroom test for special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian Federation investigation.
Manafort is also facing a separate trial in Washington D.C. on charges of money laundering and fraud conspiracy, which is scheduled for September.
Ellis does plan to make public all bench conferences now under seal with one exception - likely the part of the trial where the special counsel's office discussed its ongoing investigation.
Judge Ellis, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, said he himself was being guarded by a USA marshal.
His attorneys told jurors to question the prosecution's case as they sought to tarnish the credibility of Manafort's longtime protege Rick Gates, who was the government's star witness. The jury got the case on Thursday, and deliberations are expected to continue next week.
Federal prosecutors in the trial in Alexandria, Virginia, allege that Manafort hid tens of millions of dollars in foreign income. On Thursday, the jury ended its first day of deliberations with a series of questions to the judge, including a request to "redefine" reasonable doubt.