The shocking development came shortly after jury selection for the Trump trial was completed (File)
A man set himself on fire Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial took place, witnesses said.
A witness at the scene said he first heard the man throw leaflets in the air, then saw him extinguish himself from a can and set himself on fire. “At that moment I said, ‘Oh, what am I going to see?'” the witness told Reuters.
The witness, who declined to give his name, said the man burned for several minutes.
CNN reporters said they saw a man engulfed in flames for more than three minutes. “I see a completely charred person,” one of them said on the broadcast.
The shocking development came shortly after jury selection for the trial was completed, clearing the way for prosecutors and defense attorneys to make opening statements next week in a case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.
The courthouse in downtown Manhattan, heavily guarded by police, drew a crowd of protesters and onlookers on Monday, the first day of the trial, although the crowds have since dwindled.
According to a Reuters witness, shortly after the incident there was a smell of smoke in the square and a police officer sprayed a fire extinguisher on the ground.
The 12 jurors, along with six alternates, will consider evidence in a first-ever trial to determine whether a former U.S. president is guilty of breaking the law.
The jury consists of seven men and five women, mostly working in white-collar professions: two corporate lawyers, a software engineer, a speech therapist and an English teacher. Most are not native New Yorkers, coming from all over the United States and countries like Ireland and Lebanon.
Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter they had a decade earlier.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying corporate records filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and denies any such meeting with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump has also pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases, but this is the only one certain to go to trial ahead of the Nov. 5 election, when the Republican politician plans to take on Democratic President Joe Biden again.
A conviction would not remove him from office.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
