Max Azzarello, 37, posted what seems to be a manifesto to Substack shortly before his death
Published April 20, 2024 12:19PM (EDT)
Max Azzarello protests outside of the Manhattan courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway on April 18, 2024 in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
The man who lit himself on fire outside of the Manhattan Criminal courthouse during Donald Trump’s criminal trial died Friday night after spending the evening in critical condition.
He was identified as Max Azzarello, a 37-year-old living in St. Augustine, Fla. who doused himself in a flammable substance and threw pamphlets into the air before self-immolating.
Azzarello was active on a Substack account, on which he apparently posted a manifesto detailing a wide range of conspiracy theories involving cryptocurrency, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Trump, and New York University, among others. Although authorities do not believe he was targeting Trump.
“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery,” he wrote on the blog, before outlining several conspiracy theories detailing a “totalitarian con” and “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
“I heard this clattering, and it was those papers that he had flung up in the air,” one witness told CBS News. “That caught our attention and — caught my attention, anyway . . . then he pulled out a can and he poured it over himself. And at that point, I thought, ‘Oh … this is gonna be awful.'”
Azzarello reportedly became increasingly unwell in recent months, and posted about a three-day visit to a psychiatric care facility in August of last year.
No delays or interruptions occurred inside the courthouse, and Trump’s criminal trial is expected to move forward on Monday.
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