A prominent sports lawyer who gained prominence for handling a sweeping NCAA bribery case and whose client list includes NBA players past and present has signed on to represent the man accused of starting the Palisades fire and flew out to meet with him in jail Thursday, he announced.

Steve Haney, who has represented the likes of NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and current NBA players Malik Beasley and Emoni Bates, among others, made the announcement less than 24 hours after a grand jury indictment added new charges against 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, who now faces five to 45 years in federal prison if convicted.

Haney said by phone Thursday he took an interest in Rinderknecht’s case because “there were things I knew about this case factually and things that didn’t make sense to

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