Max Azzarello, the man who died after setting himself on fire outside a New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place on Friday, was a self-described "investigative researcher" who warned of an "apocalyptic" conspiracy, a posthumous letter has revealed.
Azzarello, in his 30s, from St Augustine in Florida, had burned for several minutes outside the court building in full view of TV cameras covering the trial before an NYPD spokesperson said he was declared dead overnight.
The manifesto, published in "the Ponzi Papers", a blog run by an "M Crosby", is apparently written by Azzarello to be read after his death, and claims "to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery" that "we are victims of a totalitarian con".
He described his self-immolation as an "act of revolution", and apologised "deeply" for "inflicting this pain" on "friends and family, witnesses and first responders", but said it was "a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict".
Witnesses said Azzarello had pulled pamphlets from a backpack and threw them in the air before dousing himself with a liquid and set himself on fire.
One of those pamphlets included references to "evil billionaires" but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Trump.
The NYPD said the man did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial.
Tarik Sheppard, a deputy police commissioner, added: "Right now we are labelling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we are going from there."
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After his apology and conspiratorial warning, Azzarello's letter includes a near 2,500-word summary of his own investigations into what he calls a cryptocurrency "Ponzi scheme", in which he name-drops figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel.
He also accuses the US government of "conning us completely" via an "entirely manufactured" division between Democrats and Republicans, and claims it "unleashed Covid on the world".
Azzarello's "research" also claimed Harvard University was "one of the largest organised crime fronts in history" before making spurious links between The Simpsons, whose creators attended Harvard, and his "totalitarian con" conspiracy theory.
He said the show "exists to brainwash us" and accused "elites" of "steal[ing] the American Dream from us" before claiming social and political divisions kept the public in a "totalitarian doomsday cult".
His letter finishes with the words: "I no longer have my original research files from the crypto rabbit hole. If you want to see them, you’ll have to get my laptop back from the government. Ask them how they got it - it’s a very fun story.
"I hope you know how powerful you are. I wish you a hell of a lot more than luck."
Azzarello's self-immolation came shortly after jury selection for Trump's trial was completed - the former president stands accused of covering up a $130,000 (£105,000) payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says they had a decade earlier.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
