Man sets himself ablaze in front of New York court hosting Trump trial

A man set himself on fire outside a New York courthouse where Donald Trump‘s trial was happening. Officials said he wasn’t trying to hurt Trump.

The man was on fire for a few minutes where everyone could see him on TV, outside the courthouse. This is where they’re holding the very first trial of a former US president.

Authorities said the man lived and was in very serious condition at a nearby hospital.

Onlookers saw the man take some papers out of a bag and throw them in the air. Then he poured a liquid on himself and lit a fire. A brochure talked about “really rich people” being bad, but the part that a Reuters person saw didn’t talk about Trump.

The police in New York said the man, Max Azzarello from St Augustine, Florida, didn’t seem to be trying to harm Trump or anyone else in the trial.

“Right now we are calling him a conspiracy theorist, and we are investigating further,” said Tarik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the Police Department, at a press conference.

In a message online, a man said he lit himself on fire and said sorry to his friends, people who saw it happen, and the first people who helped him. The post talks about a very bad takeover by a fascist group and is not happy with cryptocurrency and US politicians. It does not mention Trump specifically.

People who saw what happened said they were troubled by what he did.

“He was burning for a long time,” a person who didn’t want to share their name told the news. “It was really scary. ”

There was a lingering smell of smoke in the plaza after the incident. A person who saw what happened said a police officer used a fire extinguisher on the ground. A backpack was on fire and there was a gas can nearby.

The court in downtown Manhattan had a lot of police guarding it. Many people protested and watched the trial on the first day, but fewer people have come since then.

Jury has been chosen.

The big news came right after the jury was chosen for the trial. This means that the prosecutors and defense lawyers will be able to start making their arguments next week. The trial is about money that was paid to a porn star to keep quiet.

12 people who decide things, along with six backups, will look at evidence in a trial to decide if a former US president broke the law.

The jury has seven men and five women. They mostly have jobs in offices and wear white collared shirts. Some of the jobs include corporate lawyer, software engineer, speech therapist, and English teacher.

Many people are not from New York originally, they come from different places in the United States and other countries like Ireland and Lebanon. The alternates are backup jurors kept in case one of the regular jurors has to leave because they are sick or for some other reason.

Trump is said to have hidden a $130,000 payment his lawyer made to a porn star to keep her quiet about an affair they had before the 2016 election.

Trump says he didn’t do anything wrong. He’s been accused of lying about his business records. He also denies having any dealings with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Trump said he did not commit the crimes in three other cases. This case is the only one that will definitely go to trial before November. The Republican politician wants to run for president against Joe Biden again in the next election.

A conviction would not stop him from holding a government job.