Man lit himself on fire outside Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” trial court

Outside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway, a man lit himself on fire Friday afternoon and the 2020 election loser told reporters that he would testify.

A man set himself on fire after dousing himself with a liquid and scattering fliers into the air, across the street from Manhattan Criminal Court, where Trump is on trial for 34 charges of falsifying business records in attempts to conceal hush money paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Authorities say Maxwell Azzarello entered the park, distributed several pamphlets, and then set himself ablaze before he collapsed onto an NYPD barricade.

A self-proclaimed “investigative researcher” Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Florida, was rushed away on a stretcher after the fire was extinguished and he is now in critical condition at a burn unit at Cornell University.

In a blog post, Azzarello says he self-immolated to draw attention to his “discovery” that a tangled conspiracy involving cryptocurrency is being perpetrated on Americans.

“My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” said the blog. “This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

“These claims sound like fantastical conspiracy theory, but they are not. They are proof of conspiracy. If you investigate this mountain of research, you will prove them too. If you learn a great deal about Ponzi schemes, you will discover that our life is a lie,” said the blog. “If you follow this story and the links below, you will discover the rotten truth of ‘post-truth America’. You will learn the scariest and stupidest story in world history. And you will realize that we are all in a desperate state of emergency that requires your action.”

“To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict,” said the blog. “Because these words are true, this is an act of revolution.”

“What we know from speaking to other witnesses and family members is that he arrived in New York sometime earlier week,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press conference. “We had his car being in St. Augustine on the 13th, so anywhere between the 13th and today.”

After four days of jury selection, five alternate jurors were picked Friday, joining the 12 jurors and one alternate trump tria;who had previously been selected.

Opening statements are expected to begin Monday in Donald Trump’s New York hush money criminal trial. A full 12-person jury and six alternate jurors were selected over the course of four days.

In a hearing this afternoon, Trump’s attorneys argued against allowing prosecutors to question the former president about his past legal issues if he testifies, including the $355 million civil fraud judgment and E. Jean Carroll defamation case. The judge said the lawyers will have his decision on the matter on Monday.

Police said there are no public safety threats following the incident, and officials are reviewing security protocols around the court.