Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has invited Daniel Penny as a personal guest to watch the Army-Navy football game from Trump’s suite.

The Army-Navy game takes place Saturday at 3 p.m. ET at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.

“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said.

“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 added.

Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.

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. https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3

— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 13, 2024

From the New York Post:

Penny’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, said Vance texted him to congratulate them, which is when he invited Penny to the game.

“We were all shocked,” Kenniff said. “Danny’s first reaction was that ‘there are a lot of veterans more deserving than me’. Steve Raiser and I responded, that you don’t say no to the incoming Vice President of the United States.”

“Danny looks forward to attending,” Kenniff added.

Penny, 26, was acquitted of all charges this week related to the killing of Neely, a homeless man, in May of 2023. Neely was threatening passengers on a subway car in New York City and Penny intervened by putting him in a chokehold.

Witnesses said Neely was acting erratic and screaming “I’m ready to die,” while throwing trash at passengers and saying he wanted to kill someone.

A Manhattan jury deadlocked on the second-degree manslaughter charge brought against Penny and found him not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

Penny would have faced up to 15 years in prison for a manslaughter conviction.

The criminally negligent homicide charge had a sentence of up to four years.

Vice President-elect JD Vance invites Daniel Penny as guest for Army-Navy football game https://t.co/023WKrLZOB pic.twitter.com/dzGrr5bq8E

— New York Post (@nypost) December 13, 2024

Per NBC News:

Prosecutors accused Penny, who was 24 years old at the time of the incident, of causing Neely’s death after putting the 30-year-old homeless man in a chokehold on a subway train in May 2023.

Neely, who had a history of mental illness, had been shouting and acting erratically when he boarded the subway. Juan Alberto Vazquez, who witnessed the altercation on the subway, told NBC’s New York station at the time that Neely was being aggressive.

“The man got on the subway car and began to say a somewhat aggressive speech, saying he was hungry, he was thirsty, that he didn’t care about anything, he didn’t care about going to jail, he didn’t care that he gets a big life sentence,” Vazquez told the station in Spanish. “That ‘it doesn’t even matter if I died.’”

Synthetic cannabinoids were determined to be in his system when he died.

During the trial, a medical examiner testified that Neely died from “compression of neck (chokehold).”

The jury in the case was deadlocked last week on the more serious charge of manslaughter, causing the judge to dismiss the charge, which carried a maximum sentence of up to 15 years.