Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway bust, will join Trump’s suite for football game

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Daniel PennyA military veteran who strangled an agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of manslaughter this week has been invited by Vice President-elect JD Vance to join Donald Trump’s suite at the Army-Navy football game on Saturday.

The Marine veteran was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely died in 2023. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week.

Vance said Penny, 26, accepted his invitation to join the president-elect and him for the fight.

“Daniel is a good guy and the New York mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said in a post on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s in able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”

The case sparked national debate, with some hailing Penny as a hero for trying to subdue a man he considered a threat to public safety, and others seeing him as a white vigilante who choked a black man to death.

Right-wing political figures have defended Penny since he was charged in the death in May 2023. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamywho was running for the GOP presidential nomination and was tapped by Trump last month to lead an effort with billionaire Elon Musk to cut government spending, donated money to his legal defense fund.

After the acquittal, Penny gave a wide-ranging interview to Fox News, stating that he is “not a confrontational person.” He told the network that he would not have been able to live with “the guilt I would have felt if someone got hurt if he did what he threatened to do.”

“I’m going to take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating on me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny said.

Trump has not addressed the matter publicly recently, but last year he told The Messenger that he believed Penny and other people on the subway were “in great danger.”

Some New Yorkers protested the trial this week, holding signs and chanting Jordan Neely’s name in a Manhattan square.

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, said this week that “justice was done in this case” and Penny should never have been prosecuted.

Penny has been hailed as a hero by many, but Neely’s death also divided the town as residents grapple with how to respond to mental health crises that threaten public safety.

Passengers said Neely had not touched anyone but had expressed a willingness to die, go to jail or even to kill. The former street artist was homeless, had schizophrenia and had synthetic marijuana in his system. He had been convicted of assaulting people at subway stations.