Former New York City council candidate charged over AI-forged endorsements

Rinaldi, 47, of Forest Hills, was arrested outside his home and now faces three counts of forgery in the third degree and 15 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the third degree after Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz charged former City Council candidate Jonathan Rinaldi on Tuesday for using artificial intelligence to fabricate endorsements and news stories during his 2025 run in Queens.

The conduct stretched from January 17 through November 4, 2025, and centered on posts made mainly on Rinaldi’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. One post on October 20, 2025, used the Queens Jewish Alliance logo and branding on an altered endorsement sheet to falsely suggest the group backed his campaign for New York City Council District 29. In a recorded call, the head of the Queens Jewish Alliance confronted Rinaldi about the fake endorsement. Rinaldi replied, “When you are trying to fight against the establishment, I have to use every available tool that’s at my disposal.”

The complaint says Rinaldi fabricated a New York Post story claiming then-Council Member Robert Holden had crossed party lines to endorse him. That fake story was paired with a doctored photo that made it appear Holden was shaking his hand, and the complaint says Rinaldi prompted an AI platform with instructions such as, “face swap the man on the left” and “just change the face the head is ok they are both bald just change the face.” The forged material also targeted nonprofit organizations, public institutions and news outlets, including AI-generated videos that falsely depicted support from institutions barred from political activity.

If convicted on the top count, Rinaldi faces up to two years in prison. Queens Criminal Court Judge Indira Khan ordered him back to court on August 19, 2026. Rinaldi had already lost the June 23, 2026, Democratic primary in District 29 to Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi.

New York adopted a 2024 law requiring disclosures for deepfakes in campaign materials and allowing targeted candidates to seek court orders blocking dissemination. More than half of U.S. states now regulate AI in elections in some form. Rinaldi said in a phone interview, “I got arrested for social media posts.”