LOS ANGELES — Jonathan Rinderknecht appeared in a Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing ahead of his arson trial, which is set to begin June 8, 2026. Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to charges that he started the Palisades Fire, which began Jan. 7, 2025, burned through the hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and killed 12 people.

Rinderknecht was indicted in October 2025. Prosecutors say he started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later as the Palisades Fire.

At Wednesday's hearing, Judge Anne Hwang ruled that depositions by members of the fire department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial because the information is irrelevant to the charges and could confuse the jury. Defense attorneys had intended to use testimony from a firefighter, a fire captain, and a state park ranger that the New Year's Day 2025 blaze was visibly smoldering when first responders left the scene.

Hwang also barred prosecutors from introducing AI-generated images of a city burning that prosecutors said Rinderknecht created a few months before the fire. Other fire department actions can be discussed at trial, including its initial response to and investigation of the Jan. 1 fire that burned some brush.

Defense attorney Steve Haney said he plans to argue that the government does not have solid evidence linking Rinderknecht to the Jan. 1 fire and that first responders heard fireworks in the vicinity of where the blaze started. Rinderknecht's attorneys allege that the Los Angeles Fire Department failed to fully extinguish the earlier blaze, and that this failure led to his being charged.

A firefighter testified in a deposition that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the fire on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots despite crews having left the scene. The deposition testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city. Haney held a news conference in March pointing to the deposition testimony about hot spots after the blaze.

An outline of prosecutors' strategy appeared in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. attorney's office. Prosecutors will claim Rinderknecht was upset that he didn't have plans for New Year's Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze began.