The US Department of Justice announced the arrest of a suspect on a federal criminal complaint charging him with maliciously starting January’s Palisades Fire that destroyed 6,837 structures and resulted in 12 deaths.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, who also goes by “Jonathan Rinder” and “Jon Rinder,” was charged with destruction of property by means of fire. He was arrested Tuesday in Florida, where he is currently residing.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, the Palisades Fire is considered a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025. Although firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman Fire, it continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation. Heavy winds caused the underground fire to surface on Jan. 7 and spread above ground in what became known as the Palisades Fire, creating devastation across the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Law enforcement used witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, to determine Rinderknecht intentionally set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on Jan. 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding. A week later, the same fire – then known as the Palisades Fire – burned federal property.
Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver in Pacific Palisades on the evening of Dec. 31, 2024 – he previously lived in that community. After dropping off a passenger that evening, he headed to Skull Rock Trailhead and began the fire – investigators believe he was influenced by a music video that include fires. Environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire began at 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1, and Rinderknecht called 911 several times over the next five minutes but didn’t get through because his iPhone was out of cellphone range. When he finally connected with 911, he was at the bottom of the hiking trail and reported the fire. He then fled in his car, passing fire engines driving in the opposite direction before turning around and following the fire engines to the scene to watch the fire and the firefighters.
Rinderknecht was interviewed by law enforcement on Jan. 24 about his witnessing of the Lachman Fire. He claimed he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew.
If convicted on the charge brought against him, Rinderknecht would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Additional charges are expected to be filed against him.
We’re just gonna pin the whole damn thing on Jonathan cuz it’s easier & cheaper to go after him than Marxist Mayor Bass & Pelisi’s nephew Guv.Newsom who defunded the fire departments, shut off the fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades & never refilled the nearby reservoir w water – yea, that’s easier!
Exactly my thoughts too.
And adding … while they’re at it they should be charging some ‘other people’ with 5-20 years plus in maximum federal prison for all their f-up’s and catastrophic failures in mismanagement of the fires.
Wow, it must hurt to stretch so far.
*IF* Gavin was Nancy Pelosi’s nephew (he is not) – So what!?!??! Are you controlled by your aunts or have you managed to grow up to be an independent adult? Gavin had a much closer relationship with djt jr’s former fiancé, and influenced by her father.
Gavin WAS the nephew of Paul Pelosi’s brother’s wife, only until he was about 10. They had no formal family connection and no significant interactions until after he entered politics. Heck, I don’t even know if my brother-in-law or sisters-in-law have nephews by marriage, never mind who they might be. My spouse’s family members don’t bring even their current spouse’s, never mind any ex-spouse’s extended family to our mutual family by marriage events. Anyone with a long family history in a given area is likely to have distant connections by marriage.
No one turned off fire hydrants during the Palisides fire. If you knew anything about CA’s water storage, the difficulty of running water uphill – non-stop for days, while also using the main line water meant to replenish the water storage for the uphill hydrants, and that weather can ground air tankers, then you might start to get a clue as to the “perfect storm” of issues they ran into. I’m willing to bet there isn’t a single metropolitan city/county in a low-lying basin anywhere in the world that would not have encountered similar issues trying to fight a wildfire in drought prone nearby mountains.
You are blaming B, C and D for the fires. but if A didn’t happen there would be no B, C and D….maybe looking at it this way will help.
You are an idiot!
I agree with you. The people in charge of managing the state are the one’s to blame. Their jobs are to make sure that the fires should have been extinguished before it got out of hand. God knows what they have done.
Seriously? So *this* guy was the best they could find for a patsy and it’s he who’s taking the fall for the Palisades fires? What? With too many people looking for a legitimate explanation this is the best they could conjure up?
Did he also turn off the water hydrants and cancel homeowners’ insurance policies, just before the fire? Yup, this one guy did all this AND set the fire. Incredible…and not remotely believable. So, the “root structure and dense vegetation” story explains why only the homes, cars and people were incinerated – burned to ash – but not the trees, bushes, grass and brush that are still standing? What kind of “wildfire” destroys buildings, melts metal rims on cars but leaves the vegetation intact? Oh no, it couldn’t be a Directed Energy Weapon that caused this massive destruction, could it? It had to be this one guy – Mr. Dangerous. However did he manage to melt the homes (except those with a blue roof) but not the trees and shrubbery?
This tall tale is reminiscent of the Men in Black movie, with agents neuralizing bystanders and then concocting ludicrous stories to explain away events they want to hide. What’s next in the lineup for the Palisades smokescreen? Smoky the Bear went on an arson rampage? Swamp gas from a weather balloon? Bigfoot?
Well, Bill Essayli, the U.S. Prosecutor on this case is a Republican and Kenny Cooper, the ATF Agent in charge has said he’s proud to support trump/noem’s policies, so I agree their judgement is questionable. However, I’ve not found a connection to your Directed Energy Weapon conspiracy theory. Also, no one turned off fire hydrants.
When the reservoir water level is so low that there is insufficient pressure in the pipes to fight the fire, what use are fire hydrants? Why (in both Lahaina and various fires in California – including Palisades) did residents inexplicably and suddenly have their property insurance rescinded mere weeks before these communities were destroyed? Without insurance there’s no ability to rebuild. How could these insurance companies *not* have been tipped off to these disasters that caused them to cancel policies just weeks ahead of the ‘fires.’ Can you think of a cheaper way to grab land than burning down the homes and denying the ability to rebuild? Taking property by Eminent Domain means buying it at MARKET VALUE. What’s value remains when the home is destroyed? Just the land – which is what they wanted to take in the first place. Forget costly tear-down and bulldozing buildings. Removal by instant destruction is a bargain by comparison. Note also that photographers were kept out of all these “fire” areas. Why? Because trying to explain why homes are gone and cars are melted, but trees (and blue recycle boxes) still stand defies the “fire” cover-up story. And if you believe the delayed underground fire tale, I have some nice million dollar lots to sell you in Florida’s Everglades! 🙂
I am sorry, I am so confused. I thought according to the local and state Politicians (we all know who they are), the Palisades fire and all fires in California are caused by climate change. 🤔 For the record and the real truth and facts, I have a good friend in Orange County that is a Captain in the arson division and he states 95% of all fires in California are caused by arson.
Did anyone notice an early photo from the Palisades fire where everything was burned to a crisp except for the blue recycle containers at the street? Could a DEW be involved just like unburned blue umbrellas and blue cars in Hawaii? It’s funny how those pictures disappeared. Land grabs by the globalists perhaps.
“Environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire began at 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1” – what are these?
So the Lachtman fire continued to smolder and burn UNDERGROUND, INSIDE the root structure. Huh?? And heavy winds forced this underground fire to reemerge 5 days later.
We all get to learn new things here. Fires burn without air. Also, wind brings fires out of the ground. Thank goodness we all have the whole story now.