Self-proclaimed "investigative researcher" Max Azzarello posted a repetitive message to his Instagram story just minutes before setting himself on fire outside of former President Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial on Friday.
"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you," the story said.
The jury selection process in Trump's criminal trial began on Monday. Resulting from an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the case has charged Trump with illegally falsifying business records in order to hide hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign, in exchange for her not speaking out about an affair the two allegedly had in 2006. The former president has denied he had an affair with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges in relation to the case. He also has accused Bragg of political persecution.
Meanwhile, Azzarello posted a lengthy manifesto on Substack on Friday outlining his plans for self-immolation outside of the Trump trial. Newsweek reporter Katherine Fung, who has been reporting from inside the courtroom all week, said the man was holding a sign before the incident, which included a link to the Substack. A letter on the website was entitled, "I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial."
"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," he wrote. "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. 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. Because these words are true, this is an act of revolution."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign by email for comment.
CNN anchor Laura Coates was seen reporting on the former president's hush money trial in New York City and was heard saying that a man had set fire to themselves "and has emblazoned himself." She said that there were multiple fires breaking out on his body, including an arm that was engulfed in total flames.
Law enforcement officers told Newsweek that members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) rushed to provide aid after a person set themselves ablaze across the street from the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. Azzarello was hospitalized and is in critical condition at the time of publication.
Trump is only mentioned four times in Azzarello's post: in the headline, in the first sentence, and twice elsewhere, where Trump associates Josh Kushner and Anthony Scaramucci are accused of being involved in cryptocurrency, which Azzarello says is history's "largest Ponzi" scheme. The last time Azzarello mentions Trump is when he alleges that he is working in the favor of Hillary Clinton.
"What does this revelation tell us? That our government is conning us completely. That Bill Clinton was secretly on (former CIA Director) George H.W. Bush's side, and that the Democrat vs. Republican division has been entirely manufactured ever since: Clinton is with Bush; Gore is with Bush; Trump is with Hillary, and so on. When they present themselves in public, they are acting as characters that are against one another, practicing kayfabe as wrestlers do," he wrote in the Substack post.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
Update 4/19/24, 3:20 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 4/19/24, 4:35 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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