Queens City Council candidate Jonathan Rinaldi has been accused of using a number of doctored and AI-created images to fabricate endorsements from elected officials in his race against incumbent Democratic Council Member Lynn Schulman in District 29, which Rinaldi has denied.
Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to Rinaldi, the Republican candidate for the district, have posted a number of fake newspaper articles reporting on apparently false endorsements from elected officials across the city.
The posts contained fabricated headlines from outlets including the Associated Press, the New York Post, QNS sister publication amNewYork and the Queens Daily Eagle and boast of endorsements from a slew of New York City elected officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi, Council Member Robert Holden and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Several elected officials and news outlets have denied ever endorsing Rinaldi in the race.
Rinaldi, who has contested several local elections across Queens, has attracted notoriety in previous unsuccessful campaigns, most notably in 2023 when he clashed with his opponent Council Member Jim Gennaro during the election campaign for Council District 24.
In footage posted by City & State, Rinaldi appeared to aggressively confront Gennaro and challenged him to a debate, prompting Gennaro to label Rinaldi a white supremacist.
“I’m gonna catch you outside and make you, show you what a white supremacist is,” Rinaldi responded.
Rinaldi later appeared to confirm that the comments were meant as a threat and told Gennaro that he would “whoop your ass.”
Rinaldi, once referred to as the “Sperminator” because he had fathered more than a dozen children via sperm donation, was also arrested on election day last year after allegedly repeatedly ignoring commands to stop yelling at voters at a polling site in Forest Hills, according to the NYPD.
Rinaldi has stated that those reasons were “not true” and said he was arrested because he had called the police to report the Working Families Party for a “direct violation of election law.”
He had been running for Assembly District 28 at the time but was ultimately defeated by Hevesi by 17 points.
Rinaldi is now running against Schulman for the Council District 29 seat and has hit the headlines once again – this time for allegedly crafting fake headlines.
Fabricated endorsements meet pushback
One image recently posted on Rinaldi’s social media, purporting to show a headline posted in the Queens Daily Eagle, claimed that Hevesi had endorsed Rinaldi because of Schulman’s “unwavering” support for Zohran Mamdani in the mayoral election. Schulman endorsed Cuomo in the Democratic primary and has not endorsed a candidate ahead of the general election.
The Eagle has denied ever posting the story, with Hevesi telling the publication that he never endorsed Rinaldi. Hevesi could not be reached for comment, but the Assembly Member told the Eagle that the fabricated endorsement was “completely false and disgusting.” He further stated that he was “100%” endorsing Schulman in the race.
Another post on Rinaldi’s social media purported to show a New York Post article stating that Rinaldi had been endorsed by Holden.
Holden’s Chief of Staff Daniel Kurzyna said Holden had never endorsed Rinaldi in the race.
“If he thinks this kind of trolling helps him, I guess he’ll just end up losing again like he has numerous times before,” Kurzyna said in a statement to QNS.
A doctored amNewYork editorial, meanwhile, announced Cuomo’s endorsement of Rinaldi.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi denied that the former Governor had endorsed Rinaldi.
“I don’t know who that is,” Azzopardi said of Rinaldi.
Rinaldi’s account also claimed that the Republican candidate had picked up an endorsement from the Mayor after Hizzoner and Rinaldi briefly interacted at a Rosh Hashanah event last month, according to the Queens Daily Eagle.
Schulman strongly criticized her opponent, describing the fabricated endorsements as “lies, deceit and misinformation.”
“As elected officials, we should operate with the highest levels of integrity,” Schulman said. “I hold myself to that standard. Unfortunately, my opponent has decided that his best path to victory is by lying about me and creating fake news to divide our community.”
Schulman also noted that she has not endorsed any candidate ahead of the mayoral election next month and described Rinaldi as “wholly unfit for office.”
‘A taste of their own medicine’
Rinaldi pushed back strongly against his opponent, denying that any of the images had come from him personally.
Rinaldi had previously told the Queens Daily Eagle that the images were posted on his social media as a result of a hack.
In a phone interview, he did not tell QNS whether or not he had been hacked but said it was irrelevant because the doctored images were giving his opponents a “taste of their own medicine.” Rinaldi accused his political opponents and numerous media outlets of pushing “fake news” against him in the past and said the fabricated endorsements were a means of “controlling the narrative.”
“I did not create them, but with artificial intelligence, we the common person, now has control of the narrative,” Rinaldi said. “Fake news has been written about me and now I’m giving them a taste of their own medicine.”
He argued that Schulman had given a de facto endorsement of Mamdani by supporting similar policy positions to the Democratic nominee, specifically referencing Adams’s City of Yes zoning initiative to increase housing production in the city.
Schulman voted against City of Yes last December, while Mamdani is generally supportive of the initiative.
Rinaldi further argued that although the endorsements are fabricated, they are a reflection of the “sentiments of the people.” He also maintained that he had done nothing illegal during the election campaign.
“Everything I do is legal. Everything I do is powerful,” Rinaldi said.
The Queens County GOP responds
Rinaldi has not been endorsed by the Queens County GOP and received a sharp rebuke from Queens County GOP President Tony Nunziato over the fabricated endorsements.
Nunziato told the Eagle that it is “beyond belief” that a candidate would fabricate endorsements and said the GOP doesn’t want “any part of it.”
Rinaldi responded equally sharply, stating that he is the Republican candidate for the district “whether they like it or not.”
“They are not the party. I am the party,” Rinaldi said. “Nobody needs anyone’s party endorsement to get on the ballot. That’s not how any of this works. That’s not how our system works. It’s not our government works.
“So how dare they? How dare they claim that they are the arbiters of truth and control of a party? That’s absolutely absurd.”
Rinaldi further accused Schulman of refusing to debate him in the District 29 election.
“Where is my debate?” Rinaldi said. “She has no idea how to handle me. They have no idea how to deal with me, and there is nothing they can do about it.”
Schulman did not immediately return a request for comment.
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