Max Azzarello, the man who set himself on fire on Friday outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway, previously sued Bill and Hillary Clinton’s foundation, according to court documents.
Moments after jury selection for Trump’s trial concluded on Friday afternoon, Azzarello, 37, self-immolated outside Manhattan Criminal Court. Azzarello is alive, but is in critical condition at a local burn center.
Azzarello wrote in a manifesto titled, “I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial,” that he posted on Substack on Friday that “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.”
In April 2023, Azzarello filed a lawsuit in New York against the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former President Bill Clinton, as well as dozens of other defendants, many of whom are notable figures and entities like billionaire investor Mark Cuban and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Azzarello, who was representing himself, alleged in the suit that the defendants “knowingly conspired, participated in, and benefited financially from a decades-long fraudulent scheme.”
As far the Clintons’ part in this alleged scheme, Azzarello claimed that “money was solicited internationally laundered in support of the scheme via the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation [as it was formerly known], which was created for this purpose by President Bill Clinton and Doug Band in 2001.”
Azzarello claimed that the “Ponzi schemes” that begun in the late 1990s caused “significant financial, emotional, psychological harm” to himself and harm to his “health and safety.”
The case was dismissed a month later by U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken after Azzarello failed to “show cause, by filing a written declaration, why this case should not be dismissed for lack of standing and lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
Newsweek reached out to the Clinton Foundation via email for comment.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department (NYPD) told Newsweek on Friday that law enforcement was looking into Azzarello’s Substack page, which laid out a number of his political views, particularly his concerns about Ponzi schemes.
In his manifesto, Azzarello wrote to his friends and family, as well as 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.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign offered its “condolences to the traumatized witnesses” of Azzarello’s self-immolation.
“Not knowing the motivations behind this sickening situation, it’s difficult to make any definitive remarks, other than to say we are thankful that to the best of our present knowledge, nobody other than the individual in question was hurt,” national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump, who is the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee, has continued to claim on social media and to the press that the hush money case against him is politically motivated, calling it a “scam trial” and a “political witch-hunt.”
Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to $130,000 in hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. Trump has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.