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12/13 12:23 CST Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will
join Trump's suite at football game
Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will join Trump's
suite at football game
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) --- Daniel Penny, a military veteran who choked an
agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of homicide 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 cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely
's 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week.
Vance said Penny, 26, accepted his invitation to join the president-elect and
him at the game.
"Daniel's a good guy, and New York's 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 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
attempting to subdue a man he considered a menace to public safety and others
seeing him as a white vigilante who choked a Black man to death.
Political figures on the right have defended Penny since he was charged for the
death in May 2023. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for the GOP
presidential nomination and was tapped by Trump last month to lead an effort
along with billionaire Elon Musk to cut government spending, donated money to
his legal defense fund.
After the acquittal, Penny gave an extensive interview to Fox News and declared
he's "not a confrontational person." He told the network that he wouldn't have
been able to live with "the guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt, if
he did do what he was threatening to do."
"I'll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people
hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed," Penny
said.
Trump has not referred to the case publicly recently, but last year he told The
Messenger that he thought Penny and other people on the subway were "in great
danger."
Some New Yorkers protested the trial outcome 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 never should have been prosecuted.
Penny has been hailed a hero by many, but Neely's death also divided the city
as residents grapple with how to respond to mental health crises threatening
public safety.
Passengers said Neely hadn't touched anyone but had expressed willingness to
die, go to jail or even to kill. The former street performer was homeless, had
schizophrenia and had synthetic marijuana in his system. He had been convicted
of assaulting people at subway stations.
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