Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies

A man has died after setting himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial was taking place.

The New York police department said Max Azzarello did not appear to be targeting Mr Trump or others involved in the trial.

Azzarello doused himself in a cleaning substance before lighting himself on fire on Friday across the road from Manhattan Criminal Court, just moments after a full jury panel had been selected to try the former president.

He was engulfed in flames for roughly three minutes in full view of television cameras that were set up outside the courthouse.

NBC News and other US media said early on Saturday that the man had died.

Tarik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the Police Department, said at a news conference, said: “Right now we are labelling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we are going from there.”

Witnesses said Azzarello pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air before the incident. One of those pamphlets included references to “evil billionaires” but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Trump.

Azzarello published a blog post on Friday that began with the words: “My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan.”

He claimed that cryptocurrencies were being used to perpetrate a “multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme” and that the government had “unleashed Covid on the world” to explain the resulting “stock-market anomaly”.

The 2,600-word essay made only a handful of references to Mr Trump, suggesting he was part of a “secret kleptocracy” that counted previous presidents and their election rivals among its members.

Mr Azzarello was photographed outside the court holding a sign that read: “Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us.”

The former president was reportedly made aware of the incident as he sat inside the courtroom but did not respond to reporters’ questions. His campaign offered “condolences to the traumatised witnesses” and paid tribute to “the great first responders of the City of New York”.

The trial is being heard amid tight security in a 15th floor courtroom, which is said to be teeming with Secret Service officers as well as court police.

Opening statements in Mr Trump’s trial are set to go ahead on Monday morning after six alternates – who will take the place of jurors if they have to step aside – were selected on Friday.

The 12 jurors, along with six alternates, will consider evidence in a first-ever trial to determine whether a former president is guilty of breaking the law.

Prosecutors intend to call at least 20 witnesses, according to Susan Necheles, Mr Trump’s defence lawyer. He may testify on his own behalf, in a risky move that would open him up to cross-examination.

The jury consists of seven men and five women, mostly employed in white-collar professions: two corporate lawyers, a software engineer, a speech therapist and an English teacher. Most are not native New Yorkers, hailing from across the United States and countries like Ireland and Lebanon. The alternates, who will also hear the case, are held in reserve in case one of the jurors has to leave due to illness or some other cause.

Mr Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 (£105,089) payment Michael Cohen, his then-lawyer, made to Stormy Daniels, the former adult actress, before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says they had a decade earlier.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, and denies any such encounter with Ms Daniels.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases as well but this is the only one certain to go to trial ahead of the Nov 5 election, when the Republican politician aims to again take on Joe Biden.