Law enforcement officials have identified the man who lit himself on fire outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial as Max Azzarello, 37, from St. Augustine, Fla.
In online posts, Mr. Azzarello described himself as an “investigative researcher” who believed the government and wealthy individuals were behind a cryptocurrency “Ponzi” scheme that would eventually cause the economy to collapse.
Mr. Azzarello arrived Friday in a section of Collect Pond Park park in Manhattan that was sectioned off for supporters of Mr. Trump. Police said he was carrying a book bag containing leaflets that he tossed around the park before pulling out a canister and dousing himself with “some sort of liquid.”
He then lit himself on fire, to the horror of onlookers who screamed as the blaze engulfed him while he knelt on the ground. Video shows the man burning for what one witness estimated to be about three minutes, before first responders rushed in with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.
He was rushed to The William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, where he is in critical condition.
Police said Mr. Azzarello’s family didn’t know he was in New York, and that his car had been in Florida as recently as last weekend.
Asked whether there were any political motivations, police said the pamphlets he tossed into the air focused on conspiracy theories about Ponzi schemes and mob involvement in institutes of higher education.
Police said they will reevaluate security measures outside the court, and determine whether they need to close the park.
Mr. Azzarello appeared to have left a manifesto on substack that says: “I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan.”
“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,” Mr. Azzarello said.
The horrific episode played shortly after the jury selection process in Mr. Trump’s hush money trial has been finalized. The trial is slated to begin Monday.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Trump funneled money to his lawyer Michael Cohen to conceal hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and two others in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Mr. Azzarello’s self-immolation was captured live on cable television news and shocking footage of him burning circulated on social media.
He had an online footprint on substack and Instagram, where he recently posted a video of himself singing “Start a f—-ing revolution” in a fashion mimicking The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Other substack posts included: “NYU is a Mob Front,” “How The Simpsons Brainwashed Us,” and “The Rob Lowe Sex Tape - a Jeff Epstein Production.”
In his post announcing he lit himself ablaze, Mr. Azzarello warns that “Cryptocurrency is our first planetary multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme” that will lead to a stock market collapse.
He also apologizes to his friends, family and first responders.
“These claims sound like fantastical conspiracy theory, but they are not. They are proof of conspiracy,” he said. If you investigate this mountain of research, you will prove them too.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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