Trump trial recap: ‘Conspiracy theorist’ dies in self-immolation as hush money case witnesses set to testify

From a porn star and a Playboy model to a supermarket tabloid publisher – by way of a lawyer-turned-felon – the cast of characters in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president could hardly be more colourful.

Ahead of Monday’s opening arguments in Donald Trump’s hush money case, here are all the people to know.

Disgraced former congressman George Santos surprised reporters and bystanders on Thursday when he showed up outside the court where Donald Trump is on criminal trial.

Mr Santos was passing by on his way to a different event: a hearing in his own court case – a lawsuit against late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

“Today’s a big day,” Mr Santos said in a selfie video posted to X on Thursday. “I’m actually in federal court against Jimmy Kimmel for my fraud case against him.”

The hearing was in Manhattan federal court, just blocks away from Mr Trump’s courtroom.

The former congressman alleges Mr Kimmel deceived him into making more than a dozen videos on Cameo — a mobile app that allows users to pay for personalised videos from celebrities — that Mr Kimmel then played on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Mr Santos sued him in February for copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

A teacher, two lawyers and people working in finance are among the 12 jurors tasked with hearing the first-ever criminal trial against a US president.

The Trump campaign has announced that they will have 100,000 poll watchers and attorneys ready to take action on election day as former president Donald Trump’s obsession with election security continues.

Mr Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election citing baseless allegations of fraud by Democrats, and he has made similarly evidence-free claims regarding what Democrats may do this November. Even in 2016, Mr Trump asserted that he only lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of fraud.

The Trump Campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) said in a Friday statement that they would launch “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history”.

Max Azzarello, 37, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse, had recently started posting anti-establishment “conspiracy theories” online, including a lengthy article on Substack which blasted corrupt politicians, and billionaires and even made reference to The Simpsons.

The manifesto-style document warned of an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

On Truth Social, Donald Trump complained about the gag order on him in the New York criminal trial, claiming it was a violation of his First Amendment.

The former president said the gag order prevents him from talking about “the most important of topics” including Judge Juan Merchan’s “totally disqualifying conflict of interest” – which an ethics board has already determined is not disqualifying.

After a long day in court, Mr Trump called the case against him a “witch hunt” and falsely stated that “almost every legal scholar and expert has stated there is ‘no case’”.

Mr Trump’s baseless attacks on the case, judge and more are likely to continue throughout the trial which is expected to last up to two months.

The man who set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump’s trial is underway has died, police said.

Maxwell Azzarello, a 37-year-old man from Florida, was “declared deceased by hospital staff”, police told NBC News.

Azzarello was a self-described “investigative researcher” who posted a conspiracy-laden manifesto online moments before the incident.

He threw pamphlets in the air, including a newsletter that a link to Substack, before he poured fuel on his body and set himself on fire in shocking scenes.

“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 in part of a manifesto on the Substack page.

The man who set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump’s trial is under way has now been identified as a self-described “investigative researcher” who posted a conspiracy-laden manifesto online moments before the incident.

Maxwell Azzarello, a 37-year-old man from Florida, shared a string of conspiracy theories on his social media accounts in recent months, in which he railed against the rich and powerful and claimed “our only goal is to abolish our criminal government”.

On Friday afternoon, mere minutes after the final jurors were selected in the former president’s criminal case, Mr Azzarello self-immolated outside the court at Collect Pond Park.

He is now at Manhattan’s Weill Cornell Medicine Burn Center in critical condition, police said.

Less than an hour before he set himself on fire he railed against corruption in the US government in a manifesto-type document posted on Substack, seen by The Independent.

In it, Mr Azzarello describes himself as an “investigative researcher” and said that the act of self-immolation was “an extreme act of protest” over a “totalitarian con” and warned of an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

“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,” he wrote.