{"id":281026,"date":"2026-06-24T22:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/new-york-city-council-candidate-is-accused-of-forgery-over-ai-generated-posts\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T04:00:13","slug":"new-york-city-council-candidate-is-accused-of-forgery-over-ai-generated-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/new-york-city-council-candidate-is-accused-of-forgery-over-ai-generated-posts\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City Council Candidate Is Accused of Forgery Over AI-Generated Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Council Candidate Is Accused of Forgery Over AI-Generated Posts<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/best-states\/new-york\/articles\/2026-06-24\/new-york-city-council-candidate-is-accused-of-forgery-over-ai-generated-posts<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-24 22:58:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.usnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A former New York City Council candidate has been charged with forgery over allegations he used artificial intelligence to post fake endorsements and news articles on social media.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Rinaldi was arrested outside his home Wednesday and could face up to two years in prison if convicted. The 47-year-old ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a council seat from Queens last year.<\/p>\n

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not generally protect fraudulent statements, but in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Rinaldi called it a matter of free-speech. He said he would not confirm or deny that he made the posts or generated the images at issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got arrested for social media posts,\u201d Rinaldi said. \u201cThis is an issue that strikes at the heart of our First Amendment freedoms \u2014 not just for me, but for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the false posts he’s accused of having made \u2014 primarily on Facebook and Instagram \u2014 was one claiming an endorsement from the Queens Jewish Alliance. Prosecutors say the post used the authentic logo of the organization as well as a legitimate-looking endorsement sheet.<\/p>\n

The complaint says the head of the Queens Jewish Alliance confronted him in a recorded phone call, and Rinaldi responded, \u201cWhen you are trying to fight against the establishment, I have to use every available tool that\u2019s at my disposal.” <\/p>\n

In another post, Rinaldi fabricated a New York Post story claiming that then-Council Member Robert Holden, a Democrat, had crossed the aisle to endorse him, the Queens district attorney said. <\/p>\n

According to the charges, the fake story was accompanied by a doctored photo that appeared to show Holden shaking his hand \u2014 an image that Rinaldi prompted an AI platform to generate: \u201cface swap the man on the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cjust change the face the head is ok they are both bald just change the face,\u201d the prompt read, according to the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s world it is important to hold people accountable for…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City Council Candidate Is Accused of Forgery Over AI-Generated Posts https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/best-states\/new-york\/articles\/2026-06-24\/new-york-city-council-candidate-is-accused-of-forgery-over-ai-generated-posts Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":281028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/dims4\/USNEWS\/6164889\/2147483647\/thumbnail\/970x647\/quality\/85\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usnews.com%2Fcmsmedia%2Fc8%2F2875d73ffaf1787f2433e0c2454e7f%2F70dfb8a827774d41a2589c7a45bb32b5Candidate_AI_Forgery_29143.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281030,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281026\/revisions\/281030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}