Marine veteran Daniel Penny, who was recently found not guilty in a New York City subway death, will accompany Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and President-elect Donald Trump to the Army-Navy game on Saturday.
Just days ago, Penny faced the possibility of years in prison for restraining Jordan Neely, a mentally unstable man who was making death threats to passengers on a NYC metro and died following the encounter. After a jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide for placing Neely in a chokehold, he will have a seat of honor at one of the country’s most highly anticipated military sports events.
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Vance asked Penny to sit with him and Trump at the game and confirmed Friday that the marine veteran had accepted his invitation.
“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 to 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,” he continued.
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For roughly a year and a half, Penny faced a grueling legal battle on steep criminal charges that he overstepped bounds when he engaged with Neely, a homeless New Yorker who had 42 arrests on his record.
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Penny said that he put Neely in a chokehold because he felt “100%” certain that people’s lives were in danger. The Marine veteran said Neely had been making death threats to people on the subway and yelling that he was prepared to go to jail for life.
Led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, prosecutors argued Neely’s actions to place Neely in a chokehold were unwarranted, and that the chokehold was the key factor in why the homeless man died.
“The guilt I would’ve felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself,” he said.
“And 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 added during a Fox News interview.
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The college football game will be held in Maryland, and many members of the Trump team will join him in his private suite for it. Defense Secretary-pick Pete Hegseth will be in attendance, and there were reports that Gov. Ron Desantis will fly up from Florida as well.
DeSantis was rumored to be a replacement for Hegseth, as he faced an uphill confirmation battle. Now that tides are turning back in Hegseth’s favor, it’s not certain if DeSantis will still be in attendance.